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TEN YEARS 



OF 



MASSACHUSETTS 



BY 

RAYMOND L. BRIDGMAN. 



BOSTON: 
D. C. HEATH & CO., Publishers. 

1888. 









Copyright, 1888. 
By Raymond L. Bridgman. 



) 



CONTENTS 



Page 
I.— THE COMMONWEALTH, 5 

II.— CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES, .... 9 

III.— PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, 10 

Voting — School Suffrage for Women— Police — The 
Judiciary — Business Matters — Forests and Ponds 
— Commissions — The Civil Service — Race Dis- 
tinctions — Towns — Defective Classes. 

IV.— RELIGIOUS ADVANCE, 41 

Congregational Churches— Roman Catholic Churches 
— Instruction in Jails — Sunday Law. 

V.— PUBLIC MORALS, 45 

Betting and Gaming — Lotteries — Illustrations of 
Crime — Opium — Children at Public Shows — 
Gambling Dens— Divorces. 

VL— EDUCATION, 50 

The Poor Towns — Private Schools — School Dis- 
tricts — Evening Schools — Physical Exercises — 
Free Text-books — Industrial Training — Teachers' 
Tenure — Truancy — Clark University — Illiterate 
Minors — Libraries and Reading Rooms. 

VIL— SOCIETY, 57 

Gifts to Wives— Divorce— Abandoned Children- 
Tramps. 

3 



4 CONTENTS. 

Page 
VHL— LIFE AND HEALTH, 60 

Food Adulteration — Water — Vinegar — Travelers — 
Fires — Contagious Diseases — Self-injury — Chil- 
dren in Shows — Cremation. 

IX.— LABOR LEGISLATION, 72 

Factory Laws — Weekly Payments — Arbitration — 
Employers' Liability — Frogs and Switches — Wo- 
men and Minors — Special Stock — Convict Labor 
— Labor Day — Voting — Peoples' Homes. 

X.— BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, 88 

State Bonds — Savings Banks — Co-operative Banks — 
Railroads — Insurance — Loan and Trust Com- 
panies — Electricity — Gas — Insolvency— Agricul- 
ture— Limited Partnerships— Payments by Instal- 
ments — Checks. 

XL— TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION, .... 109 

Sixth class License — Liquor Transportation — Civil 
Damage Law— Punishment for Drunkenness— 
The Screen Law— Abuttor's Objection— School- 
house Law— Sureties— Sales at Night— Election 
Tj) a y S _Sales Forbidden to Certain Persons— Tem- 
perance Text-books— Habitual Drunkards— Pig- 
eon-holing Appealed Cases— Cigarettes— Liquor 
Clubs— Riots— Common Nuisance— Forfeiture of 
License— Prima Facie Law— Druggists and Apoth- 
ecaries — Patent Ballot Boxes. 

XII.— THE SUM OF IT ALL, 120 



TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 

The truth that the state has not advanced beyond 
its laws, and that its progress is to be seen in those 
laws makes the study of them — and of the intelligence, 
conscience and will of the state as seen in them — most 
helpful in understanding the state's progress. To him 
who has the vision to see through the laws, they are 
more thrilling than fiction, for they touch the lives of 
those who " stand out and take the thunder and light- 
ning" of life's poverty and calamities as well as of 
those who seek by the laws new means of protecting 
themselves in the acquirement of wealth. 

Every general law is an attempt to deduce from 
what has happened (sometimes in only a few instances) 
rules to govern what may happen again. The state's 
foresight is the result of looking backward. It locks 
the stable door after the horse has been stolen, but 
because so many other horses are left. Back of the 
laws are the suffering anc] loss on which they rest, 
material or moral. In every line of the liquor laws 



6 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

has gone the costliest human experience, and into the 
structure of the new employers' liability act went the 
tale of much injustice added to injury, and even such 
horrors as that of the brakeman, knocked from his 
place at night in an icy cut among the Berkshire hills, 
who was "picked up in baskets." Tragedy at every 
point is behind the laws. They come close home to 
the people, and in a large sense there is nothing that 
can illustrate the progress of recent years like the laws 
enacted during that time. 

The life of Massachusetts for these years is not only 
a concern to those who have shared it, but also to 
those who are to shape its future, for they can act 
intelligently only as they are familiar with its past. 
That life will be of interest, either by example or by 
warning, as the operations of its laws will show, to 
those other parts of the Union which will in time have 
her density and variety of population and her complex- 
ity of industries. 

These years show that the state does not believe 
that it is governed too much, but rather that the state, 
like an intelligent person, does all that it can to pro- 
mote the perfect development of every part of its 
organism. Hence, at every point where it sees that 
some of its members are encroaching upon others more 
than is for the good of the whole, there it interferes to 
establish justice and to promote prosperity. The state 



THE COMMONWEALTH. 7 

is continually extending its sphere of action and shows 
no sign of a change in its policy. 

In the state is more than is in any individual person. 
In it is the will, the choice of right or wrong, and the 
recognition of its obligation to make that choice. In 
it is the prosperity or misfortune of eacn* individual 
part, for as the state follows the course which gives to 
each part full freedom to develop all of good there is 
in it and represses every tendency of its individual 
parts to injure each other, so will it attain its own 
highest possibility and the highest possibility of each 
of its individuals. In the state is the common sense 
of all its parts united. Its intelligence is the sum of 
the experience of its past, as comprehended and set 
in the form of the present by its several parts. Its 
will is the will of a majority of its parts, or the will of 
the few impressed by their strength of self-assertion 
upon the majority. Its laws are the expression of its 
common sense, put into the form of its will, and show 
both what it has had the intelligence to perceive and 
the will to resolve to do. 

Beyond the will of the state the community has not 
progressed, whatever may be true of individual parts. 
Beyond the laws of the state the community knows 
nothing in that sphere where knowledge is to be car- 
ried out in action. Up to the height of its laws, then, 
has the community ascended and no higher. 



8 TEN YEAKS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

But the state has its weakness. Unworthy methods 
are combined with worthy. Its laws are made by a 
clash of interests or by a combination of good and 
selfish forces. Hidden influences shape the making of 
laws. The state is sometimes deceived by those who 
wish to secure its powerful protection for their schemes 
of money-making or political advancement. It is cred- 
ulous when its confidence has not been betrayed. It is 
incredulous of merit, when once it has been deceived. 
It is slow to enact justice. It lives from age to age, 
with the consciousness that its existence is eternal. It 
is never in a hurry. It has no fortune to make, no 
goal to reach within a given time. 

In the following pages the chief lines of develop- 
ment within ten years are indicated. During those 
years it has been the privilege of the writer to be fam- 
iliar with the legislation of the Commonwealth in the 
process of formation and enactment, and he writes of 
those things only which came under his personal notice. 
No attempt is made to trace the lines which are com- 
paratively of small importance, but only to show the 
most salient features in the development of the charac- 
ter of this person, the Commonweath of Massachusetts. 



CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES. 



CONSTITUTIONAL CHANGES. 

Only two constitutional amendments have been 
adopted within the ten years. One, adopted in 1881, 
provides that citizens of the state, honorably discharged 
from the army or the navy of the United States 
after service in time of war, shall not be disqualified 
from voting if they are paupers. It marks no develop- 
ment of the state, but is an expression of gratitude to 
the defenders of the Union, a gratitude which had 
already been liberally shown. The other, adopted in 
1885, empowers the legislature to establish voting pre- 
cincts in towns. Its object was to save travel and to 
make voting more general. It has no significance as a 
constitutional development. 

It remains, then, the truth that the foundations of 
the state were laid so broad and so deep that they 
have given scope for all the growth of late years with- 
out requiring a change. The constitution has been 
preserved, too, it should be noticed, from any other 
function than a general statement of the principles by 
which the statutes are to be enacted. The distinction 
between constitution and statute has not been obliter- 
ated, and the less the former is changed the sharper 
will be the discrimination between the two. 



10 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 

Voting — School Suffrage for Women — Police — The Judi- 
ciary — Business Matters — Forests and Ponds — Commis- 
sions — The Civil Service — Race Distinctions — Towns — 
Defective Classes. 

During the ten years the state has done much to 
secure an honest expression of the will of the voters 
at the polls, for no less than twenty separate statutes 
have been enacted for that end. By the latest, added 
care is to be taken in the registration of voters by 
recording the christian name, initial and surname, by 
giving full opportunity for registration, and by exam- 
ination as to qualifications (1878, chapter 251), so that 
every one entitled to vote may be easily identified and 
that no one else may vote. The registrars of voters 
in the towns and cities (1884, c. 298) are to be the 
town or city clerk and " three able and discreet per- 
sons, qualified voters," who shall hold no other office 
or position under the local government. They " shall 
equally represent the two political parties which cast 
the largest number of votes in the Commonwealth at 
the annual election next preceding their appointment, 
and not more than two of them shall be of the same 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 11 

political party." Any voter may make affidavit that 
he believes the registration of any person to be illegal, 
and such step shall be sufficient to require the regis- 
trars to re-examine the case. If the registration is 
illegal, the name is to be stricken from the list. A 
false answer to the registrars is punishable by a fine 
of thirty dollars. No voter can be registered without 
the concurrence of three of the four registrars. The 
assessors of taxes in each city, by July 15 each year, 
must have street lists of the voting precincts prepared 
to "show the names of all persons resident in each 
dwelling and assessed for poll taxes." 

No name can be added to the lists of voters after 
posting, unless the applicant proves his claim in person 
before the registrars. 

In 1884 (c. 298) was made a full revision of the law 
for registration, in which detailed provision was made 
to prevent fraud, by publicity, by careful examination 
of applicants, and by giving the registrars authority to 
preserve order at their sessions. Care is taken to give 
every voter his rights, but to allow no one else to vote. 
On petition of at least ten qualified voters, a super- 
visor from each of the two leading political parties may 
be appointed by the governor to attend all sessions of 
the board of registrars, and they are given the right to 
take action for the purity of the voting lists. Any 
registrar refusing or wilfully neglecting to require an 



12 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

applicant for registration to read and write before 
registration may be fined five hundred dollars or im- 
prisoned in jail one year ; and any registrar who wil- 
fully prevents or seeks to prevent the registration of 
a legal voter, or who registers a person not a legal 
voter, or is guilty of any other fraud, shall be fined not 
over three hundred dollars. Any person falsely pro- 
curing his registration, or falsely representing himself, 
or assisting in such act, may be punished for each 
offence by three hundred dollars' fine and one year's 
imprisonment. In 1887 (c. 432) provision was made 
for removing one registrar, if necessary in order to 
maintain the balance between the parties. 

In 1884 (c. 299) the election law was again revised, 
and detailed restrictions were enacted for both cities 
and towns, in order to secure an honest vote. A new 
feature of the law is that for a self-registering ballot 
box. The boxes register and cancel every ballot which 
is cast, and their use is under state supervision by a 
board appointed for the purpose. 

In the early part of the ten years, as had been the 
custom previously, ballots were of any form, color and 
marking which pleased the political parties respec- 
tively, and some tickets with conspicuous markings 
were used, so that it was perfectly easy to tell what 
ticket a man voted. Much complaint was made of 
this in the years when " bulldozing " was charged upon 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 13 

republican manufacturers and upon the managers of 

that party, which was at the time when Gen. Butler 

was vigorously but unsuccessfully campaigning for 

the governorship, and a law was enacted in 1880 

(c. 92) to provide for uniform ballots. With slight 

changes it was re-enacted in 1884 (c. 299), and stands 

as follows : 

"Sect. 27. No person shall print any ballot for use at any 
election for the choice of any national, state, district, county, or 
municipal officers, or shall distribute at any such election any 
printed ballot unless such ballots are of plain white paper, in 
weight not less than that of ordinary printing paper, and are not 
more than five nor less than four and a half inches in width, and 
not more than thirteen and a half nor less than twelve inches in 
length, and unless the same are printed with black ink on one 
side of the paper only, and contain no printing, engraving, device 
or mark of any kind upon the back thereof. The names of can- 
didates shall be printed at right angles with the length of the 
ballot, in capital letters not less than one eighth nor more than 
one quarter of an inch in height : provided, however, that any 
ballot containing the names of less than four candidates may be 
not more and shall be not less than six inches in length. The 
name of any person appearing upon any ballot as a candidate for 
any office shall not be repeated thereon with respect to the same 
office. Nothing herein contained shall authorize the refusal to 
receive or count any ballot for any want of conformity with the 
requirements of this section." 

The penalty for violating this section may be one 
hundred dollars' fine and a year's imprisonment. The 
penalty for illegal voting, by the same chapter, may 
be three hundred dollars' fine or a year's imprison- 
ment, and for altering or stealing ballots after they 



14 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

have been cast may be five hundred dollars' fine or 
three years' imprisonment. 

The growing temper of the people to insist upon 
good order at elections is shown in the following, 
(1881, c. 273) : 

"During any town, ward, or precinct meeting, or any meeting 
held for the election of national, state, county, city or town 
officers, no person shall smoke or have in his possession any 
lighted pipe, cigarette or cigar in any town hall, ward room, pre- 
cinct room, or other voting place where any such meeting shall 
be held ; and no person shall carry into any of such places of 
meeting or keep therein any intoxicating liquor. 1 ' 

Violation of the law makes the offender liable to 
twenty dollars' fine, and to be removed by force and 
kept in confinement until the meeting is adjourned. 

In order to prevent the counterfeiting of ballots, of 
which annoying instances formed the occasion of the 
law, it was enacted (1885, c. 248) that 

"The president, secretary and treasurer, or any two of such 
officers, of any political committee may place or cause to be 
placed upon the face of any ballot prepared by them for use at 
any election a printed certificate signed with their names import- 
ing that such ballot is the regular and genuine ballot of the polit- 
ical party for the use of which it is prepared," 

and may file it for public inspection with the city or 
town clerk seven days before election, with notice of 
its intended use. 

For further accuracy in the votes for state officers, 
congressmen, state senators and the chief county of- 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 15 

ficers, a law was passed in 1882 (c. 28) authorizing 
the governor and council to order new copies of the 
records ; and, for the sake of publicity, it was also 
enacted that the returns of the votes shall be published 
in every daily paper in the state and in at least one 
paper in every county where there is not a daily. 

Chapter 74 of the same year requires the check list 
in cities to be kept as long as the ballots are kept, and 
chapter 260, 1882, forbids the counting of detached 
" stickers " as ballots. 

Candidates liable to be affected by re-counts of votes 
are to be notified (1883, c. 42) of the time and place 
of the re-count. 

In 1885 was passed a law (c. 271) to enable a closer 
watch to be kept over floating voters in hotels and 
boarding houses who might or might not be legal. 
Keepers of such places, as well as the masters and 
mistresses of dwellings, are required to give full and 
true information of the names of all persons residing 
therein liable to a poll tax, under heavy penalties. 

In the same year was enacted a law (c. 345) which 
was stubbornly fought for by the democratic party for 
several years in order to make it more convenient for 
them to naturalize their voters. It extends the juris- 
diction over naturalization cases to all courts with a 
seal and clerk and with common-law jurisdiction, pro- 
vided that the applicants are within the jurisdiction of 



16 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

the several courts, or (1886, c. 203) if not in the juris- 
diction of a police, district or municipal court, the 
person may go to the court nearest to the town in 
which he resides. The law was well guarded to pre- 
vent fraud, and its leading idea was to make it easier 
for poor men to get their naturalization papers. A 
section of the law prevented naturalized persons from 
being registered within thirty days of naturalization, 
but this was declared unconstitutional by the supreme 
court and was repealed in 1887 (c. 329). 

Primary declarations of aliens to become citizens of 
the United States may be filed (1886, c. 45) in the 
supreme judicial court and in the superior court at 
any time. 

Re-counts of votes at elections held in towns are 
permitted (1886, c. 262) if statements representing 
error are filed with the town clerk within six days of 
election. The examination must be within eight days. 

Defacing lists of voters is punishable (1887, c. 147) 
by fifty dollars' fine or six months' imprisonment. 

To carry out the constitutional amendment for pre- 
cinct voting in towns, a law of 1886 (c. 264) allows 
the selectmen to divide the town into precincts within 
sixty days after it has been so voted by the citizens. 

Long agitation of woman suffrage in various forms, 
during which the proposition for general suffrage for 
women made no perceptible progress, resulted, in 1879, 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 17 

in the passage of a law (c. 223) giving women the right 
to vote for school committees. Its chief section was 
as follows, the words in brackets having been inserted 
in 1881 (c. 191) : 

"Every woman who is a citizen of this Commonwealth, of 
twenty-one years of age and upwards, and has the educational 
qualifications required by the twentieth article of the amendments 
to the constitution, excepting paupers and persons under guar- 
dianship, who shall have resided within this Commonwealth one 
year and within the city or town in which she claims the right to 
vote six months next preceding any meeting of citizens either in 
wards or in general meeting for municipal purposes, and who 
shall have paid by herself, or her parent, or guardian [or trustee] , 
a state, county, [city or town] tax which within two years next 
preceding such meeting has been assessed upon her [or her trus- 
tees] in any city or town, shall have a right to vote, at such town 
or city meeting, for members of school committees." 

The registration laws for men were made applicable 
to women, but the list of women voters is to be kept 
separate. Details as to registration are further pre- 
scribed by the laws of 1881 (c. 191) and of 1886 
(c. 68). 

These are the chief acts to reveal the development 
of the state as regards voting and the precautions to 
secure an honest vote and to check all dishonesty. 



Police Laws. 

In the police administration of the state changes 
have occurred worth noting. In 1878 (c. 242), the 

9 



18 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

44 state detective " force was reorganized, to have from 
twenty-five to thirty members. In 1879 (c. 305) it 
was abolished and the " district police " established, to 
consist of not over two officers in each district attor- 
ney's district, or sixteen in all. Their duties were 
these : 

"Said district police shall have and exercise, not only within 
the district for which each member thereof shall be especially 
appointed, but also throughout the Commonwealth, all the com- 
mon law and statutory powers of constables, except the service of 
civil process, and also all the statutory powers of police officers 
or watchmen, and may be transferred from one district to another ; 
and the governor may at any time command the services of said 
district police in suppressing riots and in preserving the peace." 

In 1885 (c. 131) the governor was authorized to 
appoint four additional district police officers in the 
districts he deemed best. In 1887 (c. 256) the force 
was increased to twenty-two men. These police officers 
have also been made inspectors of factories and public 
buildings, as appears in the chapter on labor, and in 
discharge of that function they have found their chief 
employment. 

In mentioning the police regulations of the state, 
notice should be taken of the city of Boston, for a radi- 
cal departure in the state's policy has been made in 
respect to the government of the city. In 1878 (c. 244) 
was passed a law to authorize the mayor of Boston to 
appoint, " subject to the approval of the city council, 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 19 

three able and discreet persons to constitute a board of 
police commissioners in said city." This board was 
given great powers over the Boston police and was 
charged with the general administration of police 
duties. But constantly increasing dissatisfaction on 
the part of the people of the state with the government 
of Boston, especially with the manner of enforcing the 
liquor license law, led to a radical change in the police 
management. By a law of 1885 (c. 323), the famous 
" metropolitan police " act, it was enacted that : 

" The governor of the Commonwealth with the advice and con- 
sent of the council shall appoint from the two principal political 
parties three citizens of Boston who shall have been residents 
therein two years immediately preceding the date of their appoint- 
ment, who shall constitute a board of police for said city, and who 
shall be sworn before entering upon the duties of their office." 

Full provision was made for the control of the police 
by the new commission. The city thus lost control of 
its own police, though it pays for them and also for the 
three commissioners. The bill was not enacted till 
after the most violent legislative struggle in the ten 
years now under review. For three days there was 
the most determined opposition, led by Boston demo- 
crats. Filibustering of all sorts was resorted to and 
everything done to gain time. The majority of the 
legislature, which was determined to pass the bill, 
gave the minority full benefit of parliamentary rules. 
Obstructive tactics were employed to the full amid 



20 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

constant excitement. The strain on the speaker, Mr. 
Brackett, was severe, but he maintained remarkable 
courtesy and firmness. The bill was in charge of Mr. 
Charles Carleton Coffin of Boston. Finally, on the 
third day, the majority, thinking that they had rights as 
well as the minority, held a conference during the recess 
between the forenoon and afternoon sessions. A course 
of action was decided upon, involving the suspension 
of the rules under which the filibustering had occurred, 
and it was adhered to rigidly in open session in the 
afternoon. The bill was forced through the house 
amid the protests of its opponents that the right of 
local self-government was being shamefully trampled 
under foot by the republican majority. The excite- 
ment at the culmination of the scene was intense and 
it was with the utmost difficulty that order could be 
preserved. As soon as the minority saw that their 
cause was lost, they formed in procession, headed by 
Mr. Randall of Boston, and marched across the floor in 
front of the speaker's chair, out of the house. They 
held a meeting immediately in an adjoining committee 
room and passed resolutions denouncing the bill and 
the mode of its passage. Since then the metropolitan 
police commission has been in power in Boston. 

To aid in enforcing order in towns, the employment 
of the police of cities was made possible (1880, c. 82). 

For the maintenance of order on steamboats, munic- 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 21 

ipal authorities may appoint (1880, c. 85) persons in 
the employment of steamboat companies as police 
officers. 

The Judiciary. 

Within the ten years marked changes have occurred 
in the judicial system of the state, to the general end 
of a more speedy attainment of justice. They have 
been such as would be natural with the growth of 
population and with the inadequacy of a smaller scale 
to a larger community. " Original and concurrent 
jurisdiction with the supreme judicial court in all mat- 
ters in which relief or discovery in equity is sought, 
with all the powers and authorities incident to such 
jurisdiction," has been given to the superior court 
(1883, c. 223). 

In 1885 (c. 322) the jurisdiction of district and 
police courts was enlarged to include " all crimes under 
the degree of felony, except conspiracies and libels and 
cases where a prosecution by indictment or information 
is required by law," and in 1887 (c. 293) the jurisdic- 
tion of municipal, police and district courts in certain 
criminal cases was further enlarged to be concurrent 
with that of the superior court. 

For years an annual contest occurred in the legis- 
lature over the transfer of divorce cases from the 
supreme judicial to the superior court. Pressure of 



22 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

work upon the supreme court was the reason for the 
change. The sanctity of the marriage relation, mak- 
ing every divorce case worthy the attention of the 
highest court, was the reason against it. But in 1887 
(c. 332) it was enacted without opposition that 

" The superior court shall have exclusive original jurisdiction 
of all causes of divorce and nullity or validity of marriage, and 
in such proceedings shall have all powers as to alimony, the cus- 
tody of children or otherwise which the supreme judicial court has 
heretofore had and exercised." 

The superior court was enlarged the same year 
(c. 31) from ten associate justices to eleven and by 
chapter 420, 1887, any justice of the superior court, 
after ten years' consecutive service, and being seventy 
years of age, may resign and receive half pay for the 
remainder of his life. 

A change in court practice is to be noticed by the 
law of 1882 (c. 134), allowing a person arrested on 
criminal process to deposit money to the amount of his 
bail instead of furnishing sureties. 

To prevent the defeat of justice through local pre- 
judice, cases may be transferred from one county to 
another by the following law of 1887 (c. 347) : 

" In all actions and proceedings hereafter pending in the su- 
preme judicial or superior court, whenever it shall be made to 
appear to the satisfaction of any justice of the court, in which 
such action or proceeding is pending, that by reason of local 
prejudice or other cause the parties to such action or proceeding, 
or either of them, cannot have an impartial trial in the county 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 23 

where the same was commenced and is pending, the court may 
on application of either party thereto, order such action or pro- 
ceeding to be removed for trial to such other county as shall be 
deemed most fair and equitable for the parties thereto." 

An important departure was made in 1887 (c. 435) 
in the law for punishing criminals by the "habitual 
criminals " act : 

" Whoever has been twice convicted of crime, sentenced and 
committed to prison, in this or any other state, or once in this and 
once at least in any other state, for terms of not less than three 
years each, shall, upon conviction of a felony committed in this 
state after the passage of this act, be deemed to be an habitual 
criminal, and shall be punished by imprisonment in the state 
prison for twenty-five years." 

This law is clearly due to the growing feeling of the 
people that there is a class of criminals who are incor- 
rigible, and that the safest policy is to confine them 
where they cannot commit further crime. 



Financial Matters. 

We come now to that feature of public administra- 
tion which is of a financial nature, regarding the busi- 
ness of the state as that of a person, or regarding its 
financial policy toward its citizens. In 1879 was the 
period of retrenchment, when many salaries were cut 
down materially. The state saw that many opportuni- 
ties for petty errors against it existed, and by chapter 
293 of that year the accounts of county officers were 



24 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

put under the supervision of the savings bank commis- 
sioners as an auditing board. The commissioners were 
required to compile the material parts of the annual 
reports of these officers and to present them to the leg- 
islature. They were also required to examine in detail 
the books of every county treasurer at least once a 
year without previous notice to him, and might order 
such changes of method as they saw fit. By act of 
1887 (c. 438) a special " controller " was provided for, 
to be appointed by the governor, to audit accounts of 
county officers, officers of inferior courts and trial 
justices. 

One of the most important acts of the ten years in 
the financial policy of the state was that of 1881 
(c. 304) relieving mortgaged real estate from double 
taxation, once in the name of the mortgagor and once 
in the name of the mortgagee. This measure was 
stubbornly opposed for several years immediately be- 
fore its final success in 1881. Immediately afterward, 
in 1882 and in 1883, efforts were made strenuously for 
its repeal, but they had small comparative support and 
then ceased. The member who was the most con- 
spicuous advocate of this measure, not disheartened by 
defeat and sharing its success, was Mr. Hastings of 
Worcester. The bill was his specialty and his effort 
was a material factor in the result. 

The course of the state in its relation to the debts of 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 25 

cities is noticeable. It has seemed best to put the cities 
under the restriction of law, so that they may not run 
too much into debt. The purpose has been to prevent 
a reckless city government from going too far in its 
public expense. In 1885 (c. 178) it was enacted that 
the taxes in Boston, exclusive of the state tax, and of 
the sums required to be raised on account of the city 
debt, should not be in any year over nine dollars on a 
thousand on the average assessment for the previous 
five years. The debt of Boston was not to be over two 
and a half per cent, of the above valuation till Janu- 
ary 1, 1887, and not over two per cent, after that. In 
the same year (c. 312) the taxes in other cities, exclu- 
sive of state and county tax and sums to be raised on 
account of the city debt (except in Worcester, Lynn, 
Gloucester and Brockton to January 1, 1889), were 
limited to twelve dollars on a thousand and the limit 
of debt fixed at two and a half per cent. 

An enactment for the good of the farming popula- 
tion was the law for the establishment of the agricul- 
tural experiment station in 1883 (c. 212) to conduct 
experiments to learn — 

"First, The causes, prevention and remedies of the diseases of 
domestic animals, plants and trees; Second, The history and 
habits of insects destructive to vegetation, and the means of abat- 
ing them ; Third, The manufacture and composition of both for- 
eign and domestic fertilizers, their several values and their 
adaptability to different crops and soils ; Fourth, The values, under 



26 TEN YEABS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

all conditions, as food for all farm animals, for various purposes, 
of the several forage, grain and root crops ; Fifth, The compara- 
tive value of green and dry forage, and the cost of producing and 
preserving it in the best condition; Sixth, The adulteration of 
any article of food intended for the use of men or animals ; and 
in any other subjects which may be deemed advantageous to the 
agriculture and horticulture of the Commonwealth. ,, 

An annual report is required (1883, c. 105) of the 
amount of money spent and of the results of the ex- 
periments and five thousand dollars a year in quarterly 
instalments, (1885, c. 327) is to be paid for the support 
of the station. The board of control has been incor- 
porated (1887, c. 31) and the corporation is in charge 
of the property. Another financial venture of the state 
in agriculture was offering a bounty of one dollar a 
ton (1883, c. 189) for sugar beets or sorghum cane to 
be used in this state in the manufacture of sugar. No 
bounty has ever been claimed. 

A development in municipal finance authorized by 
the legislature (1884, c. 129) is that cities, for debts 
already permitted by law, may issue notes, bonds or 
scrip and sell them publicly or privately at not less 
than par for the payment of their debts. 

The state proposes to exercise a closer supervision 
than hitherto over its manufactures and by a law of 
1886 (c. 174) the Bureau of Statistics of Labor must 
send to every manufacturing establishment a schedule 
of inquiries as to " (1) Name of the individual, firm or 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 27 

corporation. (2) Kind of goods manufactured or busi- 
ness done. (3) Number of partners or stockholders. 
(4) Capital invested. (5) Principal stock or raw ma- 
terial used, and total value thereof. (6) Gross quan- 
tity and value of articles manufactured. (7) Average 
number of persons employed, distinguishing as to sex, 
and whether adults or children. (8) Smallest number 
of persons employed, and the month in which such 
number was employed. (9) Largest number of persons 
employed, and the month in which such number was 
employed. (10) Total wages, not including salaries 
of managers, paid during the year, distinguishing as to 
sex, adults and children. (11) Proportion that the 
business of the year bore to the greatest capacity for 
production of the establishment. (12) Number of 
weeks in operation during the year, partial time being 
reduced to full time." These statistics are to be given 
under condition of privacy, and are to be tabulated 
and presented in an annual report to the legislature. 

The state has seen fit to extend its care over the 
forests (1886, c. 296) more than ever before and pro- 
poses to punish by fine up to two hundred and fifty 
dollars any one who wilfully or without reasonable 
care sets fire to another's woodland. Forest firewards 
are to be appointed by the selectmen in all the towns 
of the state and they may suppress forest fires at public 
expense. 



28 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

The state is disposed to re-assert its control over its 
great ponds (1886, c. 248) and is also changing its 
relative position regarding the use of water for domes- 
tic or for manufacturing purposes. This appeared in 
the famous Fall River case (1886, c. 353) where the 
city was granted the right, against the strenuous ef- 
forts of the manufacturers, to take water from North 
Watuppa pond for domestic uses without payment. 
The bill was passed through both branches by large 
majorities over the veto of Gov. Robinson, and the late 
Mr. Bartlett of Fairhaven made the law argument 
which decided the success of the bill. 

The state is becoming more careful of its birds and 
game, and legislates more and more strictly for their 
protection (1886, c. 276). 

Commissions. 

No change has been made by the state in its policy 
of intrusting the enforcement of certain lines of action 
to boards or commissions, but the number of such 
bodies has markedly increased. In 1879 (c. 263) was 
created the board of harbor and land commissioners. 
In the same year was established (as a reorganization) 
the state board of health, lunacy and charity, which 
continued until 1886, when (c. 101) the health de- 
partment was made a separate board. In 1879, also 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 29 

(c. 294), was created the present board of prison com- 
missioners. In 1885 (c. 813) was created the board 
of registration in pharmacy and (c. 314) the board of 
gas commissioners. In 1887 (c. 137) was created the 
board of registration in dentistry. Each of these last 
three boards reveals the state entering upon a domain 
where it had not exercised power before, marking a 
new departure in its relations to its citizens. In the 
case of each commission, it was held that the good of 
the public, its protection from incompetent pharma- 
cists, from the expense of supporting rival gas com- 
panies, and from incompetent dentists, required the 
interposition of the authority of the state. In 1887 
(c. 382) the gas commissioners were made a board of 
gas and electric light commissioner^, with large powers 
over gas and electric light companies. 

The Civil Service. 

In the record relating to public administration a 
high place should be given to the act (1884, c. 320) 
to improve the civil service of the state and of the 
cities. Nothing like it had been enacted before, and 
it was the direct result of the agitation for a civil 
service law for the nation. Its object was twofold: 
to improve the civil service, as stated in its title, and 
also to strike at a system which was corrupting to the 



30 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

politics of the state and of its cities. A joint special 
committee was appointed on the subject, of which Mr. 
Thayer of Berkshire was chairman on the part of the 
senate and Mr. Burdett of Hingham on the part of 
the house, and each of these members had a prominent 
share in shaping the bill and in carrying it through to 
enactment. The chief features of the law are these : 

" Sect. 3. No person habitually using intoxicating beverages 
to excess, shall be appointed to, or retained in any office, appoint- 
ment or employment to which the provisions of this act are ap- 
plicable; nor shall any vendor of intoxicating liquor be so 
appointed or retained. 

" Sect. 4. No person shall be appointed to or employed in any 
office to which the provisions of this act are applicable within one 
year after his conviction of any offence against the laws of this 
Commonwealth; and if any person holding such an appointment 
or in any such employment shall be convicted of the violation of 
any such law, he shall be immediately discharged from such 
appointment or employment. 

"Sect. 5. No recommendation of any person who shall apply 
for office or place under the provisions of this act, which may be 
given by any senator, member of the house of representatives, 
alderman or councilman, except as to the character or residence 
of the applicant, shall be received or considered by any person 
concerned in making any appointment under this act. 

"Sect. 6. No councillor, senator, representative, alderman or 
councilman, or any officer or employee of either of said bodies, 
and no executive or judicial officer of the state, and no clerk or 
employee of any department or branch of the government of the 
state, and no executive officer, clerk or employee of any depart- 
ment of any city government shall personally, directly or indirectly, 
solicit or receive, or be in any manner concerned in soliciting or 
receiving, any assessment, subscription or contribution for any 
political purpose whatever; but this shall not be construed to 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 31 

forbid such persons to be members of political organizations or 
committees. 

"Sect. 7. No person shall, in any room or building occupied 
for the discharge of official duties by any officer or employee of 
the state or any city thereof, solicit in any manner whatever, or 
receive any contribution of money or any other thing of value for 
any political purpose whatever. 

" Sect. 8. No officer or employee of the state, or any city 
thereof, shall discharge, or promote, or degrade, or in any man- 
ner change the official rank or compensation of any other officer 
or employee, or promise or threaten to do so, for giving or with- 
holding or neglecting to make any contribution of money or other 
valuable thing for any political purpose. 

" Sect. 9. No officer, clerk or other person in the service of the 
state or any city thereof shall, directly or indirectly, give or hand 
over to any other officer, clerk or person in said service, or to any 
councillor, senator, member of the house of representatives, alder- 
man, councilman, or commissioner, any money or other valuable 
thing on account of or to be applied to the promotion of any 
political object whatever. 

"Sect. 10. No person in the service of the state or any city 
thereof, shall use his official authority or influence either to coerce 
the political action of any person or body or to interfere with any 
election. 

" Sect. 11. No person in the public service shall for that rea- 
son be under any obligation to contribute to any political fund, or 
to render any political service, and shall not be removed or other- 
wise prejudiced for refusing to do so. 

"Sect. 12. No person while holding any public office or in 
nomination for. or while seeking a nomination or appointment for 
any office, shall corruptly use, or promise to use, either directly 
or indirectly, any official authority or influence (whether then 
possessed or merely anticipated), in the way of conferring upon 
any person, or in order to secure or aid any person in securing 
any office or public employment, or any nomination, confirmation, 
promotion or increase of salary, upon the consideration or condi- 
tion that the vote or political influence or action of the last named 



32 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

person, or any other, shall be given or used in behalf of any 
candidate, officer or party, or upon any other corrupt condition or 
consideration. 

"Sect. 13. No city in the Commonwealth shall pay any bill 
incurred by any official or officials thereof for wines, liquors or 
cigars ; nor shall any city pay any bill for refreshments furnished 
to any official of said city where the amount for any one day shall 
exceed one dollar for each member of the government of said city 
who certifies over his own signature to the correctness of the bill." 

Other regulations were made in much detail for carry- 
ing out the spirit of the law, and the commissioners 
appointed under it report that it is in successful opera- 
tion. Honorably discharged soldiers and sailors of the 
United States service in the war of the Rebellion are 
exempt (1887, c. 437) from passing the civil service 
examinations. 



The Military, Claims, Race Distinctions, Towns, 
Memorial Day, Parks. 

Regarding the military arm of the government, 
almost no advance has been made in the public admin- 
istration. The militia law has been codified and im- 
proved (1887, c. 411) ; the efficiency of the militia 
under it has increased, but there has been nothing to 
be called a new development. 

The state has recognized its obligation as a person 
to provide a method of passing upon claims against it, 
and the superior court has been given jurisdiction of 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 33 

them (1879, c. 255, and 1887, c. 246) whether at law 
or in equity. 

The state is not only just to its citizens, regardless 
of color and race, but it is determined that distinctions 
on such grounds shall not be made by its citizens 
toward each other (1885, c. 316) : 

"Whoever makes any distinction, discrimination or restriction 
on account of color or race, or except for good cause in respect 
to the admission of any person to, or his treatment in, any theatre, 
skating rink or other public place of amusement, whether such 
theatre, skating rink or place be licensed or not, and whether it 
be required to be licensed or not, or public conveyance, public 
meeting or inn, whether licensed or not licensed, shall be pun- 
ished by fine not exceeding one hundred dollars." 

This law grew out of discrimination against a person 
of color at a skating rink in Boston by the proprietor 
of the place. 

It continues to be the policy of the state to promote 
the incorporation of towns, as best adapted to advance 
its own strength and to increase the prosperity of its 
citizens. Within the ten years it has incorporated the 
towns of North Adams (1878), Cottage City (1880), 
Wellesley (1881), Millis (1885), Hopedale (1886), and 
North Attleboro' (1887). It has also made cities of 
the towns of Brockton (1881), Maiden (1881), North- 
ampton (1883) and Waltham (1884). 

As a token of honor to its sons in the Union army 
and navy, the state has made May 30 a legal holiday 
(1881, c. 71), to be known as Memorial Day. 
3 



34 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

The fostering care of the state for what makes for 
health and comfort and beauty is seen in its author- 
izing the establishment of corporations to have charge 
of public improvements of streets and parks, with 
power to beautify and to protect them from injury 
(1885, c. 157), such corporations to be the trustees of 
the towns which vote to give their streets and parks 
into their charge. 

The Insane. 

In that department of public administration which 
relates to its insane citizens, the state has made 
great changes, within the ten years, to prevent the 
commitment of sane persons by persons who may 
desire to be rid of them (1879, c. 195), to exercise 
great caution in the commitment of the insane (1880, 
c. 250, and 1886, c. 319), to provide for the care of 
the insane (1886, c. 319), to place them in private 
families (1885, c. 385), to allow cities with over fifty 
thousand people to erect asylums for the care of the 
chronic insane (1884, c. 234), and to establish places 
of committal (1887, c. 346). In 1884 (c. 322) a homoe- 
opathic hospital for the insane was established at 
Westboro. 



public administration. 35 

Juvenile Offenders and Neglected Children. 

The state has shown added care for its juvenile 
offenders and for its indigent and neglected children. 
By act of 1879 (c. 64) juvenile offenders in Boston 
may have their punishment remitted and be placed on 
probation. Pauper children over four years of age 
must not be kept in almshouses (1879, c. 103), but 
must be put in some respectable family or in some 
asylum, unless idiotic or otherwise defective, until 
they can be cared for in some other way. They must 
be visited at least once in three months, and must be 
carefully treated. Foundlings and deserted children 
under three years (1882, c. 181), who are state pau- 
pers, are to be put in a proper family or other suitable 
place, under the constant supervision of state medical 
officers. 

No child under twelve years (1882, c. 127) can be 
committed to a jail or house of correction, house of 
industry, or the state workhouse, in default of bail for 
non-payment of fine or costs, or for punishment of any 
offence not punishable by imprisonment for life. The 
state board of lunacy and charity is to have the care 
of such children, awaiting examination or trial, unable 
to furnish bail. 

State paupers, between three and sixteen years, may 
be committed by the state board to the state primary 



36 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

school (1882, c. 181), and orphans or children of 
drunken or vicious parents, under fourteen years, 
growing up in vice, may be put under charge of the 
state board until they are twenty-one, or for a less 
time. 

Every city and every town with over five thousand 
people shall (1878, c. 217) make provision for the 
care and education of its neglected children who may 
otherwise grow up " without salutary parental control 
or education, or in circumstances exposing them to 
lead idle and dissolute lives." 

Abandonment by a parent of a child less than two 
years of age is punishable (1882, c. 270) by two years' 
imprisonment, or, if death is the result of the abandon- 
ment, by five years'. Persons who receive for board a 
child under one year of age which they have reason 
to believe to be illegitimate, are required to notify the 
overseers of the poor, and the parents of the child are 
required to give true statements concerning it to the 
authorities. Imprisonment for a year, or one hundred 
dollars' fine, is the penalty for violating the law. 
Whoever unreasonably neglects to support his minor 
child may be punished by twenty dollars' fine or six 
months' imprisonment. 

Reformatory Policy. 
In dealing with the criminal classes the state has 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 37 

made a new departure in several respects. In 1878 
(c. 198) provision was made for an official to attend 
the Suffolk criminal courts "to investigate the cases 
of persons charged with or convicted of crimes and 
misdemeanors, and to recommend to such courts the 
placing on probation of such persons as may reason- 
ably be expected to be reformed without punishment." 
Means were provided for placing such persons on pro- 
bation. In 1880 (c. 129) the law was extended to the 
whole state, with ample safeguards for the system, so 
that justice might be done and the person be returned 
if the conditions of his release were broken. The 
same year (c. 151) provision was made for releasing 
women from county prisons to be employed in do- 
mestic service, under contract by the prison commis- 
sioners, for the term of their imprisonment, any woman 
leaving such service to be returned and punished by 
added imprisonment. Violation of a permit to be at 
liberty voids the permit (1884, c. 152). 

To encourage good conduct, in 1880 (c. 218) a 
revised schedule was adopted for the reduction of 
terms of imprisonment, if the conduct was exemplary, 
in which the reduction promised was most liberal. 
This was somewhat modified in 1881 (c. 141). By 
act of 1881 (c. 90) women may be liberated from the 
woman's reformatory prison when it appears to the 
prison commissioners that they have reformed; but 



38 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

consent of the court, in case of serious crimes, must 
first be obtained, and if the conditions of release are 
violated, the woman must serve her original term. 
To insure a sufficient term for the exercise of reform- 
atory effort, no convict shall be sentenced (1880, 
c. 114) to the Sherborn woman's prison for less than 
one year. 

The reformatory policy in regard to men, either 
young or not hardened offenders, was put in force by 
the state in 1884 (c. 255). The Concord state prison 
was taken for a reformatory, and the older and more 
hardened criminals were sent back to the old state 
prison at Charlestown. A new system was adopted 
in regard to the treatment and imprisonment of those 
who were deemed subjects for reform, and the system 
of sentences arranged with much detail. One of the 
officers is an instructor, who "shall devote his whole 
time to the instruction of the prisoners and the pro- 
motion of their moral and religious well-being." The 
system of conditional release is employed, and the 
prisoners are carefully classified for purposes of re- 
form. The sentence of imprisonment is based on the 
following (1886, c. 323) : 

" When a convict is sentenced to the Massachusetts reforma- 
tory, the court or trial justice imposing the sentence shall not fix 
or limit the duration thereof, unless the term of said sentence 
shall be more than five years, but said convict shall merely be 
sentenced to the Massachusetts reformatory." 



PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION. 39 

The state, in these ten years, has tended to become 
more humane toward its prisoners. A lock letter-box 
for communication by the prisoners with the principal 
officer, or any director or trustee, is to be provided in 
each penal or reformatory institution (1878, c. 276). 
Punishment by the gag in any penal or charitable 
institution is forbidden (1879, c. 181), under fifty 
dollars' penalty. This grew out of a sensational case 
of the use of the gag, and made much stir at the time. 
Keepers of jails and houses of correction may spend 
annually (1881, c. 125) one hundred dollars for books 
and papers for their prisoners. They may also spend 
(1881, c. 126) as much as ten dollars to help any one 
prisoner when he is discharged from their custody, 
either giving him the cash outright or its equivalent 
in board, clothing, transportation or tools. A woman 
agent may be employed (1881, c. 179) to help dis- 
charged women convicts to obtain employment and 
to give them such pecuniary aid as is deemed advis- 
able. Women charged with crime, whose cases are 
disposed of without sentence (1886, c. 177), may have 
a payment for their benefit made to the Temporary 
Asylum for Discharged Female Prisoners. The law 
for one hour each evening for instruction in reading 
and writing, for inmates of the state prison, has been 
enlarged (1886, c. 197) so that "certain schools for 
instruction of the prisoners " may be maintained. 



40 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

The law in regard to serving cumulative sentences 
has been made clearer (1884, c. 265) : 

11 A person upon whom two or more sentences to imprisonment 
have been imposed may be fully committed upon all such sentences 
at one and the same time, and such sentences shall be served in 
the order named in the mittimuses upon which such person is 
committed. " 

For the protection of women under arrest, and that 
they may have the care of one of their own sex, a law 
has been enacted (1887, c. 234) for the appointment 
of police matrons in cities with over thirty thousand 
people, and for a house of detention for women in 
Boston. Says the law: "A police matron shall have 
the entire care and charge of all women held under 
arrest in the station to which she is attached." 



RELIGIOUS ADVANCE. 41 



RELIGIOUS ADVANCE. 

Congregational Churches— Roman Catholic Churches — 
Instruction in Jails — Sunday Law. 

Almost no development in religious matters, as 
related to the laws, is found in the ten years from 
1878 to 1887. So large has been the opportunity 
already granted that the pressure of religious wants 
against legal religious possibilities has scarcely been 
felt. The most notable change is that which concerns 
the growth of the Orthodox Congregational churches. 
The historic organization has been twofold — the church 
and the parish. But latterly has been developed the 
policy of abolishing the parish entirely and of making 
the church, the sole organization. At first this policy 
was introduced by the incorporation of churches sep- 
arately by special enactment. Thus there were in- 
corporated the Broadway Congregational Church in 
Somerville (1883, c. 269), the Highland Congregational 
in Lowell (1884, c. 202), the Orthodox Congregational 
in Ashby (1885, c. 177), the Union Congregational in 
Wrentham (1886, c. 56), the Central Congregational 
in Chelmsford (1886, c. 249), and the First Congrega- 



42 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

tional in Ayer (1887, c. 359). Near the end of the 
session, in 1887 (c. 404), came the general law, whose 
first sentence is: "Any chnrch now existing or that 
may be hereafter organized in this Commonwealth, 
may be incorporated according to the provisions of 
this act." This provides a nniform method for the 
incorporation of churches, and marks a radical depart- 
ure in church history. Church members only can be 
members of the corporation, and the historic parish is 
wiped out in every church so incorporated. 

A general law for the formation of religious societies 
(1880, c. 21) provides the method by which ten or 
more persons, male or female, in the state, may become 
a corporation, with the powers and duties of religious 
societies previously recognized. A method for the 
incorporation of Roman Catholic churches has also 
been provided (1879, c. 108), by which any such 
church may be incorporated. The archbishop or bishop 
of the diocese, the vicar general of the diocese and 
the pastor of the church, respectively, or a majority of 
them, and two laymen, members of the church, may 
be incorporated as members of the church, with the 
powers usual in such cases. 

The law giving religious freedom to prisoners in 
jails and houses of correction has been extended to 
inmates of public charitable and reformatory institu- 
tions (1879, c. 158), but the inmates of all public 



RELIGIOUS ADVANCE. 43 

institutions may be required to assemble in the chapel 
for such "general religious instruction, including the 
reading of the Bible, as the board having charge of 
the institution may deem wise and expedient." 

"All religious societies shall be exempt from obtaining a 
license required by the laws of this Commonwealth for public 
entertainments, provided said entertainments are for a religious 
or charitable purpose 11 (1880, c. 188). 

The law for an annual election sermon before each 
new state government has been repealed (1884, c. 60). 

Churches and religious societies may appoint not 
over five trustees, who may be incorporated and hold 
funds in trust (1884, c. 60). 

In 1887 was made a thorough revision of the Sun- 
day law, showing how far the sentiment of the state 
had changed as regards Sunday observance. The 
whole affair grew out of the labor agitation of the 
times. Certain barbers objected to shaving on Sunday, 
and had recourse to the old Sunday law, which had 
fallen into gradual disuse, to enforce their position. 
The law was clear, and there was no course for the 
courts but to convict upon the evidence presented. 
Upon the announcement of the decision of the supreme 
court, to which the test case had been appealed, the 
police commissioners of Boston ordered the old law to 
be enforced in regard to barber shops, sales of Sunday 
newspapers by news-dealers, and other similar matters. 



44 TEX YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Thus the matter at once became of vital interest to 
the whole community, and the revision of the Sunday 
code by the legislature was made the subject of much 
agitation. Finally an agreement was reached, and the 
things formerly prohibited, but now permitted, appear 
chiefly in this list (188T, c. 391) : 

— "but nothing in this section shall be held to prohibit the manu- 
facture and distribution of steam, gas or electricity for illumin- 
ating purposes, heat or motive power, nor the distribution of 
water for fire or domestic purposes, nor the use of the telegraph 
or the telephone, nor the retail sale of drugs and medicines, nor 
articles ordered by the prescription of a physician, nor mechani- 
cal appliances used by physicians or surgeons, nor the letting of 
horses and. carriages, nor the letting of yachts and boats, nor the 
running of steam ferryboats on established routes, of street rail- 
way cars, nor the preparation, printing and publishing of news- 
papers, nor the sale and delivery of newspapers, nor the retail 
sale and delivery of milk, nor the transportation of milk, nor the 
making of butter and cheese, nor the keeping open of public 
bath houses, nor the making or selling by bakers or their em- 
ployees of bread or other food usually dealt in by them before 
ten of the clock in the morning and between the hours of four of 
the clock and half-past six of the clock in the evening." 

The prohibition of unlicensed games, sports, plays 
or public diversions upon Saturday evenings is also 
removed, as is the prohibition of Sunday travel. The 
railroad commissioners are authorized to allow the 
running of such steamboat lines and of such railroad 
trains on Sunday as, " in the opinion of the board, the 
public necessity and convenience may require, having 
regard to the due observance of the day." 



PUBLIC MOBALS. 45 



PUBLIC MORALS. 

Betting and Gaming — Lotteries — Illustrations of Crime 
— Opium — Children at Public Shows — Gambling Dens — 
Divorces. 

In no degree have the laws for the punishment of 
offences against good morals been relaxed, but the 
record of the ten years shows that the state is ever vig- 
ilant to suppress what it believes tends to the injury of 
its citizens. In 1878 (c. 165) the registering of bets 
and wagers and the buying and selling of pools " upon 
the result of any trial or contest of skill, speed or en- 
durance of man, beast, bird or machine ; or upon the 
result of any game or competition ; or upon the result 
of any political nomination, appointment or election," 
or being in any way concerned with such practices, even 
as owner or lessee of the property where they occurred, 
were made punishable by a fine up to two thousand 
dollars, or by a year's imprisonment, or both fine and 
imprisonment. 

Pigeon shooting for amusement or as a test of skill 
in marksmanship, not including wild game, is punish- 
able (1879, c. 187) by fifty dollars' fine and thirty days' 



46 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

imprisonment, one or both. Each of these two laws 
was the result of occurrences which aroused public in- 
dignation at the time, in consequence of their moral 
corruption or their brutality. 

In the interest of public morals any court of record 
may exclude minors from the court room (1881, c. 274) 
when the court thinks that the testimony may injure 
the morals of the young, when the young persons are 
not needed as witnesses or as parties. 

The state says that her travellers shall not be an- 
noyed by indecent language or behavior and makes 
any offender in that respect punishable by thirty days' 
imprisonment or fifty dollars' fine (1883, c. 102). 

Persons present at games or sports in common gam- 
ing houses, whether or not they were playing, may be 
punished by fifty dollars' fine (1883, c. 120). The 
mere fact of presence making them liable to punish- 
ment is the restriction added last by the state. The 
fixtures, furniture and personal property used in gam- 
ing are all to be forfeited (1885, c. 66) upon conviction 
of the persons using them. 

The state, believing that any form of lottery, even 
gift enterprises, is bad for the morals of the people, has 
decreed (1884, c. 277) that— 

"No person shall sell, exchange or dispose of any property, 
or offer or attempt to do so upon any representation, advertise- 
ment, notice or inducement that anything other than what is 



PUBLIC MORALS. 47 

specifically stated to be the subject of the sale or exchange, is, 
or is to be delivered or received, or in any way connected with, 
or a part of the transaction. 11 

The multiplication of cheap papers with illustrations 
of violence and crime, and the profuse display of such 
papers in shop windows, led the state, in 1885 (c. 305), 
by a stringent enactment, to prohibit the circulation of 
such papers among minors, saying: 

"Whoever sells, lends, gives away, or has in his possession 
with intent to sell or distribute, or otherwise offers for loan, gift, 
sale or distribution to any minor child any book, pamphlet, maga- 
zine, newspaper or other printed paper devoted to the publica- 
tion or principally made up of criminal news, police reports, 
or accounts of criminal deeds, or pictures and stories of lust or 
crime, 11 

or otherwise puts such publications in the sight or pos- 
session of a minor child, shall be punished by fine of 
from one hundred to one thousand dollars, or imprison- 
ment not over two years. 

" No deformed person who is a minor or insane, and no person 
who has an appearance of deformity produced by artificial means, 
shall be exhibited for hire 11 (1884, c. 99). 

Certain highly colored reports in the winter of 1885, 

regarding the frequenting of Chinese "opium joints" 

by white people, and stories of excessive debauchery by 

means of opium led to the enactment of the following 

(c.73): 

"Any person who opens or maintains, to be resorted to by 
other persons, any place where opium or any of its preparations 
is sold or given away to be smoked at such place, and any person 



48 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

who at such place sells or gives away any opium or any of its 
preparations to be there smoked or otherwise used, and any per- 
son who visits or resorts to any such place for the purpose of 
smoking opium or any of its preparations, shall be punished by 
a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment in 
the house of correction not exceeding six months, or by both such 
line and imprisonment." 

In the legislature of 1887, after representations by 
some of the Boston members of the house of the low 
character of some places of public amusement in the 
city and of the immoral purposes to which, they were 
made accessory, even by very young persons, it w^as for- 
bidden (c. 446) to take any child under thirteen years 
to any licensed public show or place of amusement, 
unless accompanied by some one over twenty-one, 
under one hundred dollars' penalty^. But the law does 
not apply to shows or amusements occurring before 
sunset. 

In the same year, a particularly horrible murder in a 
gambling den on Avery street, Boston, where the house 
was "barred against the police, led to the law (c. 448) 
that when any officer, empowered to serve criminal 
process, finds that access to any place, which he has 
reasonable cause to believe is resorted to for unlawful 
gaming, is barred by any obstruction other than what 
is usual in ordinary places of business, he shall notify r 
the building inspector, or other proper officer, and the 
obstruction must be removed at the expense of the 
person in control of the building. 



PUBLIC MORALS. 49 

One law has been passed (1880, c. 38), which some 
people will doubtless regard as a step backward. It 
repeals so much of an old law (1818, c. 171) as for- 
bade smoking in the streets of Boston. 

The state defends marriage by punishing those who 
would make divorce easy. In 1882 (c. 194) a law 
was passed for complete statistics of divorces to be re- 
turned to the secretary of state by clerks of courts an- 
nually. In 1886 (c. 342), knowingly procuring or 
assisting to procure any fraudulent divorce was made 
punishable by two hundred dollars' fine, or six months' 
imprisonment, and in 1887 (c. 320) the same penal- 
ties were enacted for any one who "writes, prints or 
publishes, or solicits another to write, print or pub- 
lish, any notice, circular or advertisement soliciting 
employment in the business of procuring divorces, or 
offering inducements for the purpose of procuring such 
employment." 
4 



50 TEN YEABS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



EDUCATION. 

The Poor Towns— Private Schools— School Districts — 
Evening Schools — Physical Exercises — Free Text Books 
— Industrial Training — Teachers' Tenure — Truancy 
— Clark University — Illiterate Minors — Libraries and 
Readlng Rooms. 

During the ten years ended with the legislature of 
1887, Massachusetts has made but little change in her 
educational system. Previous laws have been carried 
out and new legislation has been unsuccessfully at- 
tempted for the better education of the children of the 
sparsely inhabited country districts. A readjustment 
of the distribution of the school fund has been the 
means proposed for such aid, and an elaborate plan has 
been presented by the secretary of the state board of 
education, Mr. John W. Dickinson, who has given 
much study to the problem, but it has not yet been 
adopted. Partial relief is afforded to the poorer towns 
by the latest law (1884, c 22) for distributing one 
half of the annual income of the school fund, as follows : 

" Eveiy town complying with all laws in force relating to the 
distribution of said income, and whose valuation of real and per- 
sonal estate, as shown by the last returns thereof, does not exceed 



EDUCATION. 51 

one half million dollars, shall annually receive three hundred 
dollars ; every such town whose valuation is more than one half 
million dollars, and does not exceed one million dollars, shall 
receive two hundred dollars ; every such town whose valuation 
is more than one million and does not exceed three million dol- 
lars, shall receive one hundred and fifty dollars. The remainder 
of said half shall be distributed to all the cities and towns whose 
valuation does not exceed ten million dollars, in proportion to 
the number of persons between five and fifteen years of age 
belonging to each." 

Of late there has been popular interest over the 
growth of Roman Catholic parochial schools, which, as 
such, are not recognized by law, but are included in the 
general class of "private schools." In 1878 (c. 171) it 
was enacted that — 

" School committees shall approve private schools in their 
respective localities only when satisfactory evidence is afforded 
them that the teaching in such schools corresponds in thorough- 
ness and efficiency to the teaching in the public schools, and 
that the progress made by the pupils in studies required by law 
is equal to the progress made during the same time in the public 
schools ; and such teaching shall be in the English language." 

The old school district system, with its sentimental 
but unfortunate association with the historic "little red 
school-house," was the subject of this enactment in 
1882 (c. 219): "The school district system in this 
Commonwealth is hereby abolished," the act to take 
effect January 1, 1883. Towns had previously (1873) 
been empowered to abolish school districts and many 
had done so, for it was the experience of many educa- 



52 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

tors that the district system caused evils which were 
lightened or removed by town management. 

For the better efficiency of the school system, the 
state enacted (1879, c. 21) that any one in control of 
a child between eight and fourteen years of age who 
withheld information sought by a school committee or 
its agents should be punishable by a fine of twenty dol- 
lars or thirty days' imprisonment. 

For the benefit of those anxious for an education who 
cannot attend day schools, the state enacted (1883, 
c. 174) that — 

" Every town and city having ten thousand or more inhabitants 
shall establish and maintain, in addition to the schools required 
by laAV to be maintained therein, evening schools for the instruc- 
tion of persons over twelve years of age in orthography, reading, 
writing, geography, arithmetic, drawing, the history of the United 
States, and good behavior. Such other branches of learning may 
be tauffht in such schools as the school committee of the town 
shall deem expedient." 

The school committee has supervision of such schools. 
In 1886 (c. 236) the system was extended so that 
every city of fifty thousand people and over must, upon 
petition of at least fifty residents over fourteen years of 
age, desiring and competent to pursue high school 
studies, and so certifying, maintain an evening high 
school. 

For the better physical development of the pupils, 
exercises are permitted (1881, c. 193) which may — 



EDUCATION. 53 

" — at the discretion of the committee, include calisthenic, gym- 
nastic and military drill, provided that no special instructors shall 
be employed to teach gymnastics, calisthenics, or military drill, 
except by a two thirds vote of the committee present and voting 
thereon." 

After long agitation and excited debate in the legis- 
lature, and without success at first, the law for free text- 
books (1884, c. 103) was enacted. Its purpose was 
that poor children might be on an equality with the 
well-to-do and that instruction might not be hindered 
for lack of books. Its essential words are these : 

" The school committee of every city and town shall purchase, 
at the expense of such city or town, text-books and other school 
supplies used in the public schools ; and said text-books and sup- 
plies shall be loaned to the pupils of said public schools free of 
charge, subject to such rules and regulations as to care and cus- 
tody as the school committee may prescribe." 

The next year a law was passed (c. 161) by which 
school committees are allowed to provide, at the public 
expense, such apparatus, books of reference and other 
means of illustration for the schools as they may deem 
necessary. 

The tendency of the times toward industrial training 
in the public schools appears in the law of 1884 (c. 69) 
for instruction in the elementary use of hand tools. 
This instruction shall be given " in all the public schools 
in which the school committee may deem it expedient," 
the tools to be free of cost, the same as the text-books. 

The agitation for a more secure tenure of office for 



51 TEX YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

public school teachers resulted in the permissive law 
of 1886 (c. 313): 

" The school committee of any city or town may elect any duly 
qualified person to serve as a teacher in the public schools of 
such city or town during the pleasure of such committee : pro- 
vided, such person has served as a teacher in the" public schools 
of such city or town for a period of not less than one year." 

The laws against truancy have been strengthened 
by one (1885, c. 71) to punish, by fine of from twenty 
to fifty dollars, any one who, after notice from a truant 
officer to refrain, entices in any manner any child to 
truancy. 

A notable educational event of the decade has been 
the incorporation of Clark University in Worcester 
(1887, c. 133), upon a plan equal in scope to Harvard 
University. Its incorporators and purposes are thus 
stated in the act, the first corporator mentioned being 
the one who gives the university its name and a liberal 
endowment of over a million dollars : 

"Jonas G. Clark, Stephen Salisbury, Charles Devens, George 
F. Hoar, William W. Rice, Joseph Sargent, John D. Washburn, 
Frank P. Goulding and George Swan, all of the city of Worcester 
in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, and their successors, are 
hereby made a corporation by the name of the Trustees of Clark 
University; to be located in said Worcester, for the purposes of 
establishing and maintaining in said city of Worcester an institu- 
tion for the promotion of education, and investigation in science, 
literature and art, to be called Clark University." 

Under the head of education, too, would come the 



EDUCATION. 55 

law of 1880 (c. Ill), authorizing towns to establish 
and maintain public reading rooms, and that of 1885 
(c. 225), to protect persons using public libraries and 
reading rooms from wilful disturbance, under penalty 
of thirty days' imprisonment or fifty dollars' fine upon 
the offender. 

To prevent the working of children to the neglect of 
their education, it was enacted (1878, c. 257) that in 
every manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile estab- 
lishment in the state, a certificate shall be kept of the 
age and place of birth of every minor child there 
employed under sixteen years, which certificate, if the 
minor is under fourteen years, shall state the amount 
of his school attendance in the year next preceding 
such employment. The same act provided that, after 
May 1, 1880, 

" — no child under fourteen years of age shall be employed in 
any manufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment, while 
the public schools in the city or town where such child lives are 
in session, unless such child can read and write.' 1 

Violation of the law is punishable by fine of from 
twenty to fifty dollars, for the use of the public schools. 
In 1883 (c. 224) the prohibition of the employment of 
children received this addition : " and no child under 
twelve years of age shall be so employed during the 
hours in which the public schools are in session in 
the city or town in which he resides;" and in 1885 



56 TEN YEARS OF ^MASSACHUSETTS. 

(c. 222) it was made to read : " at any time during the 
days," instead of " during the hours." 

In order to check the spread of illiteracy, especially 
among the French Canadians who come to the state 
and desire to put their children at work in the factories 
or elsewhere while yet of school age, a law has been 
enacted (1887, c. 433) to punish by fine of from twenty 
to fifty dollars, 

"Every owner, superintendent or overseer of any manufactur- 
ing, mechanical or mercantile establishment who employs, or 
permits to be employed therein, a minor under fourteen years 
of age who cannot read and write in the English language, 
except during the vacation of the public schools in the city or 
town where such minor lives, and every parent or guardian who 
permits such employment." 

The employment of a minor of fourteen or over, who 
cannot read or write English, and who has been for 
one year a continuous resident of a place with public 
evening schools, and is not a regular attendant on such 
schools, is punishable by a fine of from fifty to one 
hundred dollars. Suspension of the law, when neces- 
sary to prevent hardship, is permitted to the school 
committee. 



SOCIETY. 57 



SOCIETY. 

Gifts to Wives — Divorce — Abandoned Children — 
Tramps. 

But few laws have been enacted by the state to 
affect the relations of her citizens to each other as 
members of society. Some changes relating to women 
are to be noted. They may practice as attorneys at 
law (1882, c. 139). As such they may be appointed 
(1883, c. 252) to administer oaths, to take depositions, 
and to take acknowledgments of deeds. They may 
also serve as overseers of the poor (1886, c. 150). 
Gifts to them from their husbands are to be their sep- 
arate property, by the following law of 1879 (c. 133) : 

"The wearing apparel and articles of personal ornament of a 
married woman and articles necessary for her personal use, ac- 
quired by gift from her husband, not exceeding two thousand 
dollars in value, shall be and remain her sole and separate prop- 
erty: provided, however, that nothing herein contained shall be 
construed to authorize suits between husband and wife or to make 
valid any gift or transfer by a husband in fraud of his creditors." 

Divorced persons have been the subject of the fol- 
lowing (1881, c. 234): 



58 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

" The party against whom a divorce has been or may hereafter 
be granted shall not marry within two years from the time of the 
entry of the final decree of divorce ; at the expiration of said two 
years said party may marry without petition to the court." 

Abandoned or abused children, under fourteen years, 
without a legally appointed guardian, " entirely aban- 
doned, or treated with gross and habitual cruelty, by 
the parent or other person having the care or custody 
of such minor," or illegally deprived of liberty, may 
be put, by the probate court of the county (1879, 
c. 179), under the care of the Massachusetts Society 
for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children as guardian. 
Parents or guardians of a child under fourteen years, 
unable to support it, may give the custody of the child 
to the same society. Any child under five years, 
found abandoned, may be put in the custody of the 
society for thirty days. 

It was not until 1880, after the turn in the tide of 
destitution and suffering following the paper money 
era and the collapse of 1873, that the state passed a law 
(c. 257) to protect the people from tramps. Tramps 
were to be put into a house of correction, or the 
Bridgewater workhouse, for from six months to two 
years. 

" All persons who rove about from place to place, begging, or 
living without labor or visible means of support, shall be held to 
be tramps within the meaning of this act. Any act of begging or 



SOCIETY. 59 

vagrancy by any person having no known residence within this 
Commonwealth, shall be prima facie evidence that the person 
committing the same is a tramp within the meaning of this act." 

The act did not apply to any woman or minor under 
seventeen years, nor to any blind person, nor to any 
one asking charity in his own city or town. Tramps 
could be arrested without warrant, and copies of the 
act were to be posted in at least six conspicuous places 
in each city and town. Tramps who committed other 
offences, such as were common at the time (entry of 
premises, injury of property, threats of violence and 
carrying of dangerous weapons), were punishable by 
imprisonment for from one to two years. 

Charitable and like associations were given more 
power by act of 1882 (c. 195), by which regular pay- 
ments to members, or to persons dependent upon them, 
might be made for not over six months at one time. 



60 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



LIFE AND HEALTH. 

Food Adulteration — Water — Vinegar — Travellers — Fires 
— Contagious Diseases — Self - Injury — Children in 
Shows— Cremation. 

We come now to the field in which the state exer- 
cises care over the lives and health of its citizens, and 
we find a large body of legislation in the last ten years. 
The state undertakes to see that the people shall not 
use adulterated food or drugs, that they shall be safe 
while travelling, that they shall not live in unhealthy 
houses, nor be exposed to contagious diseases, nor be 
burned in fires, nor blown up by explosives, nor have 
a fairly preventable opportunity to injure themselves. 
Laws for all these purposes are found in this depart- 
ment, and, in one view, the pharmacy and dentistry 
laws above mentioned belong here also. 

We notice first the precautions against adulterated 
food and drugs. Such laws are not new, and the new 
of the last ten years are additions, showing the progress 
which has been made in protecting the public health. 
By act of 1878 (c. 76) the penalty for adulteration (a 



LIFE AND HEALTH. 61 

year's imprisonment or three hundred dollars' fine) 
was extended to the person furnishing the adulterating 
article, in addition to the person actually making the 
adulteration. The chief recent enactment to prevent 
the adulteration of food and drugs was in 1882 (c. 263) 
and it was thorough-going. All drugs must be up to 
the standard of the United States Pharmacopoeia ; food 
must not suffer from the presence of inferior material, 
nor from the absence of valuable portions, nor be an 
imitation of another article, nor have any diseased or 
rotten vegetable matter, nor be coated to appear of 
more than its real value, nor contain any poisonous in- 
gredient. The enforcement of the law was put into 
the hands of the state board of health, lunacy and 
charity, and it was given three thousand dollars a year 
for analyzing samples of food and drugs. The bill 
was bitterly and persistently opposed before enactment, 
and strenuous attempts were made to minimize the 
supposed injury from adulterations. The next year 
(1883, c. 263) the appropriation was raised to five 
thousand dollars and two thousand of it was required 
to be spent to enforce the laws against the adulteration 
of milk. In 1884 (c. 289) the sum was raised to ten 
thousand dollars and six thousand of it required to be 
spent to prevent the adulteration of milk and milk 
products. These last two laws indicate the sharp 
struggle there has been in Massachusetts to preserve 



62 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

the purity of milk. By act of 1886 (c. 171) "drug" 
iu the law of 1882 includes all medicines, antiseptics, 
disinfectants and cosmetics, and u food" includes "con- 
fectionery, condiments and all articles used for food or 
drink by man." 

The competition of western lard, alleged to be in- 
ferior, and less nutritious and healthful, led to the 
enactment (1887, c. 449) of the law that any lard 
with any ingredient but the pure fat of swine must 
be plainly labelled " compound lard." 

The sharpest contest over any food adulteration has 
been made over adulterated milk and into that contest 
have entered both commercial and sanitary forces. 
The milk adulterators have exerted themselves in 
every possible way to break down the standard of 
thirteen per cent, of solids. The milk producers and 
wholesalers have generally insisted upon the high 
standard. The opposition has for the most part come 
from retailers of Boston and vicinity. A strong incen- 
tive to enforce the law for pure milk has been the large 
number of infant lives which have been sacrificed in 
Boston alone to adulterated milk. Then, again, the 
" oleo " men have protested against any law which shall 
enable the consumer to distinguish readily between 
genuine butter and "oleo" at the table. These two 
matters are still subjects of keen controversy. 

In 1878 (c. 106) was enacted a strict law against 



LIFE AND HEALTH. 63 

butter not the product of milk exclusively, and the sale 
or preparation of a manufactured compound product, 
unless plainly marked "oleomargarine," was made pun- 
ishable by one hundred dollars' fine. A long bill to 
regulate the inspection and sale of milk was enacted 
in 1880 (c. 209), giving officers powers of inspection 
and seizure and imposing heavy fines. In 1881 (c. 292) 
was enacted a stringent law to prevent deception in 
sales of butter and cheese, requiring the words "oleo- 
margarine" or "imitation cheese" to be plainly put 
on each package. This law also provided heavy pen- 
alties. In 1884 (c. 310) the previous laws were 
made more stringent, as experience had shown to be 
necessary to checkmate the adulterators. Again in 
1885 (c. 352) the law for the protection of good milk 
and butter was revised and strengthened, still in the 
interest of the public health and honest products. But 
this was not enough and in 1886 (c. 317) was enacted 
a further law to regulate the sale of imitation butter 
and another (c. 318) to increase the powers of milk 
inspectors and to make the punishment of adulteration 
more certain and severe. During these latter years 
the state board of health had been most active and 
efficient in prosecuting dealers in adulterated milk. 
The butter law is so enforced that customers of re- 
tailers may know when they buy "oleo," but at the 
session of 1887, a bill to color the article so that such 



64 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

persons as the patrons of boarcling-houses would know 
when they were eating it was successfully resisted. 

The state also has care for the purity of its water 
supplies. In 1878 (c. 183) an elaborate bill was passed 
to prevent the discharge of any sewage or drainage 
where it could run into any stream or pond used as a 
source of water supply. General supervision of all 
streams and ponds of the state used as sources of water 
supply, except the Merrimack, Connecticut and Con- 
cord rivers, was given to the state board of health. By 
a law of 1879 (c. 270) water boards, commissioners 
and companies are required to make full triennial re- 
turns to the state board of health of the character, ex- 
tent and amount of their water supply, its use (by how 
many families and their averaga consumption), sewage, 
method of distribution, and many other details to the 
end that the state may have full information concerning 
its water supply. These facts are to be reported to the 
legislature. Bathing in a pond used for water supply 
is forbidden (1884, c. 172) under ten dollars' fine. 
By act of 1886 (c. 274) the state board of health is 
given "the general oversight and care of all inland 
waters" and it must recommend legislation for the 
preservation of the public health and for the purity 
of all the inland waters of the state. The board is 
also empowered (1886, c. 287) to prevent the sale of 
impure ice. 



LIFE AND HEALTH. 65 

Vinegar has also been the subject of legislation for 
purity (1880, c. 113), and selling as cider vinegar that 
which is not so is punishable by fine of from fifty to 
one hundred dollars, and the use of lead, copper, sul- 
phuric acid or other injurious ingredient is punishable 
by not less than one hundred dollars' fine. By the laws 
of 1881 and of 1885 (cs. 307 and 150) the proportions 
of acetic acid and vinegar solids are regulated and 
other stringent restrictions are added. 

Massachusetts is as careful of her people when travel- 
ling as when at their homes, and has legislated lately 
for their protection on the rail. In 1881 (c. 194) was 
passed a law, after several years of agitation, especially 
by Dr. B. Joy Jeffries of Boston, forbidding railroad 
companies to employ any person in a position requiring 
him to distinguish form and color signals, unless he has 
been examined within two years and has a certificate 
that he has not color-blindness or other defective sight. 
By act of 1883 (c. 125) the two years' provision was 
removed. In 1882, after one of the terrible warnings 
which are so familiar from the wreck of passenger 
trains and the great loss of human life by crushing and 
burning, the legislature required every railroad corpo- 
ration to 

" — equip each car of eveiy passenger train, owned or regularly 
used by it, including mail and baggage cars, with two sets of 
tools, consisting of an axe, a sledge-hammer, a crowbar, hand- 
saw and pail. All such tools and appliances shall be maintained 

5 



bb TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

in good condition for use in case of accident, and shall be kept 
one set upon the inside and one upon the outside of each such 
car." 

Tampering with these tools is punishable by one 
hundred dollars' fine or three months' imprisonment, 
or both. But the frightful wreck at Bussey bridge, 
within the limits of Boston, in March, 1887, produced 
more radical legislation. One law (c. 334) compels 
every railroad corporation to have its bridges examined 
once in two years by a competent engineer, whose 
reports must be sent to the railroad commissioners. 
Another (c. 362) abolishes the "deadly car stove." 

" No passenger, mail or baggage car on any railroad in this 
Commonwealth shall be heated by any method of heating or by 
any furnace or heater unless such method or the use of such fur- 
nace or heater shall first have been approved in writing by 
the board of railroad commissioners : provided, however, that in 
no event shall a common stove be allowed in any such car ; and 
provided, also, that any railroad corporation may with the per- 
mission of said board make such experiments in heating their 
passenger cars as said board may deem proper." 

The testing of locomotive boilers is under the charge 
of the railroad commissioners (1882, c. 73) and the use 
of an untested boiler is punishable by a fine of twenty 
dollars per day. 

The railroad commissioners may order a railroad 
corporation to establish gates and a flagman at any 
grade crossing they see fit (1883, c. 117). Blockades 
of grade crossings by railroad cars, to the incon- 



LIFE AND HEALTH. 67 

venience and danger of the pnblic, are pnt under the 
jurisdiction of the railroad commissioners (1885, 
c. 110). 

By law of 1881 (c. 199) the penalty upon a railroad 
corporation for negligence by which the life of a pass- 
enger, or other person not an employee, is lost, is from 
five hundred to five thousand dollars ; but the law does 
not apply to persons walking upon the track contrary 
to the rules of the corporation. The same law applies 
to steamboat and stage-coach companies, but the loss 
of life from defective highways or bridges of a county 
or town does not carry but one thousand dollars' pen- 
alty. The above chapter provides the means of recov- 
ering damages for loss of life or for injury. A law 
of 1880 (c. 110) makes a special crime of throwing 
missiles at cars and at passengers in steam or horse 
cars, or interfering with persons in charge of such 
cars. 

Street railway corporations are made liable (1886, 
c. 140) for the death of a passenger, or any person 
not an employee, to the extent of not less than five 
hundred nor more than five thousand dollars. 

The state also protects its people against explosives 
and combustibles. A law of 1881 (c. 137) forbids 
explosive or inflammable compounds to be so placed 
in manufactories as to obstruct or render hazardous 
egress from them. No petroleum or its product can 



68 TEX YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

be kept for retail (1885, c. 122) unless approved by 
an official inspector. The mixing and sale of naphtha 
and fuel oils is made (1885, c. 98) the subject of care- 
ful regulations, under heavy penalties. Warned by 
the loss of life in hotel fires, an enactment was made, 
in 1883 (c. 251), that 

"Every keeper of a hotel, boarding or lodging house contain- 
ing one hundred or more rooms, and being four or more stories 
high, shall have therein at least two competent watchmen, each 
properly assigned, and each on duty between the hours of nine 
o'clock in the afternoon and six o'clock in the forenoon. And 
every keeper of a hotel, boarding or lodging house containing 
fifty or more, but less than one hundred rooms, and being three 
stories high, shall have between said hours at least one compe- 
tent watchman on duty therein." 

A red light is to stand at the head and foot of each 
flight of stairs. Alarms or gongs are to be conven- 
iently placed. Posted notices as to these matters are 
to be conspicuous. School buildings over three stories 
high, and manufacturing establishments of that height, 
are to be well supplied with fire-escapes, which must 
be kept in good order. Improved automatic appli- 
ances may also be used (1884, c. 223). Tenement 
and lodging houses, three or more stories high, must 
be provided (1882, c. 266) with sufficient fire-escapes, 
to be approved by the inspector of factories and public 
buildings. 

The state's regard for life and health extends to 
buildings, both their mechanical construction (1878, 



LIFE AND HEALTH. 69 

c. 47) and their sanitary arrangements (1885, c. 374 
and 382 for Boston) in full detail. Elevators are to 
be provided with safety apparatus (1882, c. 208), and 
must be placarded and stopped when unsafe (1883, 
c. 173). Wooden flues or air ducts are forbidden 
(1885, c. 326) in certain cases. 

Contagious diseases have received the continued 
care of the state. Local boards of health, notified of 
a case of small-pox, must notify the state board within 
twenty-four hours (1883, c. 138). If a householder 
knows that a person in his family has a contagious 
disease dangerous to public health, he must (1884, 
c. 98) notify the local board of health or selectmen at 
once, and on the death or recovery of the person must 
disinfect the room and articles, under one hundred 
dollars' penalty. Physicians, under penalty of from 
fifty to two hundred dollars, must notify the author- 
ities of dangerous contagious diseases in their practice. 

" The school committees shall not allow any pupil to attend the 
public schools while any member of the household to which such 
pupil belongs is sick of small-pox, diphtheria, or scarlet fever, or 
during a period of two weeks after the death, recovery or removal 
of such sick person ; and any pupil coming from such household 
shall be required to present to the teacher of the school the pupil 
desires to attend, a certificate, from the attending physician or 
board of health, of the facts necessary to entitle him to admission 
in accordance with the above regulation 11 (1885, c. 198). 

Protection against self-injury is another care of the 
state; hence the laws to regulate the sale of toy 



70 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

pistols and other dangerous articles (1882, c. 272), to 
prohibit the sale of fire-arms and other dangerous 
weapons to minors (1884, c. 76), and to regulate the 
sale and use of poisons (1887, c. 38). The first was 
caused by repeated fatal accidents to children from 
playing with toy pistols, and the last was the outcome 
of frequent instances of suicide by the use of " rough 
on rats." 

Delicate nerves have received the compassion of the 
state, and a law of 1879 (c. 284) requires the use of 
a muffler or other appliance to deaden the noise from 
operating vacuum brakes or from "a pop or other 
safety valve," under penalty of from one hundred to 
three hundred dollars for every locomotive, and a fur- 
ther fine of five dollars a day. The railroad com- 
missioners are empowered (1885, c. 334) to forbid or 
regulate the use of locomotive whistles at grade 
crossings. 

A few years ago a strong public feeling was aroused 
against the employment of children on the theatrical 
stage, the objection having to do both with morals 
and physical health, and a law was passed (1880, 
c. 88) that 

" No license shall be granted for any theatrical exhibition or 
public show in which children under the age of fifteen years and 
belonging to the public schools are employed or allowed to take 
part as performers on the stage in any capacity, or where in the 
opinion of the board authorized to grant licenses such children 



LIFE AND HEALTH. 71 

are employed in such a manner as to corrupt their morals or im- 
pair their physical health." 

After the life has departed, the state does not give 
up its care. Burial is not permitted till the facts of 
the death are recorded (1878, c. 174) according to the 
latest ideas. Cremation is permitted (1885, c. 265) 
by the law for the formation of corporations for that 
purpose, but 

" No body of a deceased person shall be cremated within forty- 
eight hours after decease, unless death was occasioned by conta- 
gious or infectious disease; and no body shall be received or 
cremated by said corporation until its officers have received the 
certificate or burial permit required by law before burial, together 
with a certificate from the medical examiner of the district within 
which the death occurred, that he has viewed the body and made 
personal inquiry into the cause and manner of death, and is of 
opinion that no further examination nor judicial inquiry concern- 
ing the same is necessary." 



72 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



LABOR LEGISLATION. 

Factory Laws — Weekly Payments — Arbitration — Employ- 
ers' Liability — Frogs and Switches— Women and Minors 
— Special Stock — Convict Labor — Labor Day — Voting 
— Peoples' Homes. 

Within the decade legislation in the interest of 
employees of large corporations, or labor legislation, so 
called, has been unusually prominent. Especially true 
is this of the sessions of 1886 and 1887, when the 
"labor scare" among politicians prevailed, following 
the rapid growth of the Knights of Labor. More labor 
laws were passed in those two years than in the other 
eight. Material progress was then made in laws to 
protect the lives, health and property of employees and 
to settle their difficulties with their employers. 

But in the early years of the ten some laws of this 
class were passed. The most important relate to man- 
ufacturing establishments chiefly. The law of 1874 
that no minors under eighteen years and no women 
should be employed in manufacturing establishments 
over ten hours a day was amended in 1880 (c. 194) by 
requiring a conspicuous notice of the hours such help 



LABOR LEGISLATION. 73 

must work on each day of the week to be posted in 
every room where they are employed. A law of 1886 
(c. 90) requires the notice to include the time of begin- 
ning and stopping work, the time to be allowed for 
stopping and starting machinery and the time taken 
for dinner. 

To guard the employees of manufacturing establish- 
ments and workshops from fire, it was provided by act 
of 1880 (c. 197) that every room in such places, where 
five or more operatives are employed above the second 
story, shall have more than one egress, either inside or 
outside, and as near as practicable at opposite ends of 
the room. A later act (1884, c. 52) says that "no out- 
side or inside doors of any building, wherein operatives 
are employed, shall be so locked, bolted or otherwise 
fastened during the hours of labor as to prevent free 
egress." 

To illustrate how labor laws are sometimes enacted, 
the following is worth notice: In 1882 certain em- 
ployees in Plymouth felt aggrieved that their early 
morning bell, or "rousing bell," was no longer rung. 
Petitions for such ringing were circulated in their own 
and other factories and the result was a law (1883, 
c. 84) allowing employers to give notice to their em- 
ployees by bells, whistles and gongs, subject to the 
regulation of the local authorities — much to the dis- 
comfiture of the individual who, in the first place, had 



74 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

the rousing bell discontinued so as not to disturb his 
morning nap. 

In 1886, under the impulse of accidents to operatives 
from being caught in machinery and being badly lacer- 
ated or killed before the machinery could be stopped, 
it was enacted (c. 173) that — 

" In every manufacturing establishment where the machinery 
used is propelled by steam, communication shall be provided 
between each room where such machinery is placed and the room 
where the engineer is stationed, by means of sj>eaking tubes, 
electric bells or such other means as shall be satisfactory to the 
inspectors of factories : provided, that in the opinion of the in- 
spectors such communication is necessary." 

In the line of result from the same cause was the 
act (1886, c. 260) requiring all manufacturers (persons 
or corporations) to send to the chief of the district 
police a written notice of an accident to an employee 
resulting in death or injury sufficient to cause four 
days' absence from work. The record of such accidents 
is to be presented in the annual report of the chief. 

In 1887 especial attention was given to the privileges 
and rights of factory operatives and the legislative 
leader in this respect was Mr. Quincy of Quincy. 
Most of the important bills were drawn by his own 
hand and were advocated more by him than by any 
other member. Detailed provision is made by chap- 
ter 103 for the proper sanitary condition of factories 
and workshops, under one hundred dollars' penalty, and 



LABOR LEGISLATION. 75 

such condition is made part of the care of the factory 
inspectors, while the enforcement of the law rests with 
the local board of health. A subsequent chapter 
(c. 173) provides for the proper ventilation of factories 
and workshops so as to remove all injurious "gases, 
vapors, dust or other impurities," under penalty of one 
hundred dollars. 

The evil of hurried and irregular meal hours was the 
object of chapter 215 (1887) and it enacts that u all 
children, young persons and women, five or more in 
number, employed in the same factory, shall be allowed 
their meal time or meal times at the same time." Ex- 
ceptions are allowed for persons beginning work at 
different times, 

" — but no such children, young persons or women shall be em- 
ployed during the regular meal hour in tending the machines, or 
doing the work of any other children, young persons or women 
in addition to their own, 1 ' and 

"No child, young person or woman shall be employed in a 
factory or workshop, in which five or more children, young per- 
sons and women are employed, for more than six hours at one 
time without an interval of at least half an hour for a meal, 1 ' 

with certain exceptions in harmony with the spirit of 
the act. This act does not apply to iron works, glass 
works, paper mills, letter-press printing establishments, 
print works, bleaching works or dyeing works. The 
chief of the district police may at his discretion, where 
it is proved to be necessary, with the approval of the 



76 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

governor, issue a certificate of exemption from the law. 
The penalty of violating the law is from fifty to one 
hundred dollars. The owner is not to be held respon- 
sible (1887, c. 330) for work in violation of the law, 
and without the knowlege of the employer, by any 
minor under eighteen or by any woman. 

The powers of factory inspectors have been en- 
larged (1887, c. 218) to include all the new duties 
imposed upon them as to sanitary condition and venti- 
lation of factories and workshops, the employment of 
women and minors and precautions against fires. 

In order to protect operatives from fines for imper- 
fect weaving, a law has been passed (1887, c. 361) 
putting the imposition of such fines under strict regu- 
lation, tending to make weavers more watchful, and 
the fine is in no case to exceed the actual damage to 
the employer. 

"No child under the age of fourteen years shall be permitted 
to clean any part of the machinery in a factory while such part is 
in motion by the aid of steam, water or other mechanical power, 
or to clean any part of such machinery that is in dangerous prox- 
imity to such moving part" (1887, c. 121). 

One of the most protracted labor contests was that 
for weekly payments of wages to employees of corpora- 
tions. Year after year the petitions were presented, 
but only to be defeated. Fortnightly payments bills 
were introduced, but they shared the same fate. The 



LABOR LEGISLATION. 77 

especial opponents of the change were the great cotton 
manufacturing corporations, and they had their agents 
at the state house to prove to the legislature that 
it was impossible to make the change. But it was 
learned that the system was followed by some mills 
successfully. The petitioners were persistent and fin- 
ally the opposition ceased for the most part and the 
law was enacted (1886, c. 87) : 

"Every manufacturing, mining or quarrying, mercantile, rail- 
road, street railway, telegraph, telephone and municipal corpora- 
tion and every incorporated exj3ress company and water company 
shall pay weekly each and every employee engaged in its busi- 
ness the wages earned by such employee to within six days of the 
date of said payment : provided, however, that if at any time of 
payment any employee shall be absent from his regular place of 
labor he shall be entitled to said payment at any time thereafter 
upon demand." 

The penalty for violating the law was fixed at from 
ten to fifty dollars. In 1887 (c. 399) every municipal 
corporation and every incorporated county were also 
put under law. Railroad corporations, at the discre- 
tion of the railroad commissioners, may be exempt from 
weekly payments to such employees as prefer less fre- 
quent payments, when their interests and the public's 
will not suffer. The chief of the district police, or 
any factory inspector, is allowed to bring complaint 
against any corporation for violation of the law. This 
act was anticipated in part by that of 1879 (c. 128) 
requiring all cities to make weekly payments to all 



78 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

their laborers who demand them, who are not given 

over two dollars a day. 

We come now to a radical and important departure 

in labor legislation — the "act to provide for a state 

board of arbitration for the settlement of differences 

between employers and their employees " (1886, c. 263). 

As it marks a decided step of development, it is worth 

noticing in some detail, with its amendments of 1887 

(c. 269). Section 1 provides for the appointment by 

the governor of three competent persons to serve as 

" a state board of arbitration and conciliation." One of 

the board must be an employer, or from an association 

representing employers of labor. One must be from 

a labor organization and not an employer of labor. 

The third is to be appointed on recommendation of 

the other two, or, if they do not agree within thirty 

days, by the governor, without their recommendation. 

The governor can fill vacancies and make removals. 

Section 2 requires the board to establish rules, subject 

to the approval of the governor and council. Section 

3 is the most important of the law, and is as follows : 

" Whenever any controversy or difference, not involving ques- 
tions which may be the subject of a suit at law or bill in equity, 
exists between an employer, whether an individual, copartnership 
or corporation, and his employees, if at the time he employs not 
less than twenty-five persons in the same general line of business 
in any city or town in this Commonwealth, the board shall, upon 
application as hereinafter provided, and as soon as practicable 
thereafter, visit the locality of the dispute and make careful in- 



LABOR LEGISLATION. 79 

quiiy into the cause thereof, hear all persons interested therein 
who may come before them, advise the respective parties what, if 
anything, ought to be done or submitted to by either or both to 
adjust said dispute, and make a written decision thereof. This 
decision shall at once be made public, shall be recorded upon 
proper books of record to be kept by the secretary of said board, 
and a short statement thereof published in the annual report 
hereinafter provided for, and the said board shall cause a copy 
thereof to be tiled with the clerk of the city or town where said 
business is carried on." 

Section 4 (1887) prescribes the method of application 
to the board. The application is to be signed by 
the employer, or by a majority of the employees in the 
department where the controversy exists, or by their 
agent, or by both parties, must give a concise state- 
ment of grievances and a promise to continue the 
business or work without lock-out or strike until the 
decision of the board, if it is within three weeks. The 
names of employees represented by an agent are to be 
kept secret by the board. Public notice of the time 
and place of the hearing is to be given, unless both 
parties request otherwise. If the applicants fail to 
keep their promise, the board shall not go on without 
the written consent of the other party. Witnesses 
may be examined under oath, and books with record 
of wages paid be required to be produced. Section 5 
provides for publishing the decision. Section 6 says 
that the decision shall be binding for six months on 
the parties who join the application, "or until either 



80 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

party has given the other notice in writing of his 
intention not to be bound by the same at the expira- 
tion of sixty days therefrom." Section 7, by act of 
1887, is much changed from section 7 of 1886. It 
allows the parties to submit their dispute to a local 
board of arbitration and conciliation, to be selected, 
one by each party, and the third by the other two, 
which board shall have all the powers of the state 
board in like case. When mayors or boards of select- 
men are informed that a strike or lock-out is likely to 
occur, or is in progress, they must at once notify the 
state board of the facts. Section 8, by act of 1887, 
provides that in case of such notice to the state board, 

" — it shall be the duty of the state board to put itself in com- 
munication as soon as may be with such employer and employees, 
and endeavor by mediation to effect an amicable settlement be- 
tween them, or to endeavor to persuade them, provided that a 
strike or lock-out has not actually occurred or is not then continu- 
ing, to submit the matters in dispute to a local board of arbitra- 
tion and conciliation, as above provided, or to the state board ; 
and said state board may, if it deems it advisable, investigate the 
cause or causes of such controversy and ascertain which party 
thereto is mainly responsible or blameworthy for the existence 
or continuance of the same, and may make and publish a report 
finding such cause or causes and assigning such responsibility 
or blame." 

Sections 9 and 10 provide for compensation of wit- 
nesses and of the board. 

Immediately following this chapter in the laws of 
1887 is another (c. 270), which also marks a radical 



LABOR LEGISLATION. 81 

departure. It is the famous employers' liability law, 
which was fought on both sides for years with great 
skill and persistence. Like some other laws, it appears 
to owe its existence, at as early a date as the present, 
to the conviction of one man that it was necessary to 
right a wrong, and that man, by his enthusiasm and 
untiring effort, has converted the majority. In this 
case that one man was Mr. Charles G. Fall, a young 
Boston lawyer. Striking instances were narrated, year 
after year, of great wrong to persons and suffering to 
families because an injured employee could not recover 
damages. Mr. Fall had the support from the begin- 
ning of those representing the employees to be bene- 
fited, but was opposed by the great corporations, by 
the conservatism of capital in its relation to labor, and 
by contractors. This law, also, is worthy of mention 
in detail, because it introduces a new feature in the 
practice of the state. 

Section 1 gives the injured employee, who was in 
the exercise of due care and diligence (or, if the 
injury was fatal, his legal representative), the same 
right of compensation and remedies against the em- 
ployer as if the employee had not been in his service, 
under these conditions : when he was injured, 

" (1) By reason of any defect in the condition of the ways, 
works or machinery connected with or used in the business of the 
employer, which arose from or had not been discovered or rerae- 

6 



82 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

died owing to the negligence of the employer or of any person 
in the service of the employer, and entrusted by him with the duty 
of seeing that the ways, works or machinery were in proper con- 
dition ; or 

" (2) By reason of the negligence of any person in the service 
of the employer, entrusted with and exercising superintendence, 
whose sole or principal duty is that of superintendence. 

" (3) By reason of the negligence of any person in the service 
of the employer who has the charge or control of any signal, 
switch, locomotive engine or train upon a railroad." 

Section 2 provides that, in case of instant death, the 
widow or next of kin dependent upon the employee's 
wages may have the same rights as if the death had 
not been instantaneous, or as if the deceased had con- 
sciously suffered. Section 3 limits the compensation 
for personal injury to four thousand dollars, and for 
death at from five hundred to five thousand dollars, 
and provides the formalities for legal action. Sec- 
tion 4 covers the cases of contractors and sub-contract- 
ors to insure his rights to the employee. Section 5 
debars from the benefit of the act any employee who 
knew of the defect which caused the injury and did 
not give notice of it to his employer or to a superior. 
Section 6 allows a part of the damages recoverable to 
be offset by the amount the employee has received 
from any insurance fund or other relief fund which 
was contributed by his employer. Section 7 is that 
the act shall not apply to injuries caused to domestic 
servants or farm laborers by fellow-employees. 



LABOR LEGISLATION. 83 

Preceding this law by a few weeks (1887, c. 130) 
was the act to incorporate the American Mutual Lia- 
bility insurance company from some of the best known 
business men of the state, 

" — to be located in the city of Boston, for the purpose and with 
the power and authority of insuring employers of labor against 
losses from claims of their employees for injuries received while 
in their service. 11 

Before the employers' liability bill was enacted, 
three laws were passed which in part grew out of the 
agitation, and were used to help postpone the main 
question, till the corporations finally succumbed to 
the inevitable. In 1882 (c. 244) employees of rail? 
road and steamboat companies were authorized to form 
relief societies. In 1883 (c. 243) railroad companies 
were made liable for the death of an employee, in the 
exercise of due care, if he was killed under such cir- 
cumstances as would have entitled him, if death had 
not resulted, to maintain an action for damages. In 
1886 (c. 125) railroad corporations were authorized 
to join relief societies with their employees. The idea 
was that thus the road would contribute to the support 
of injured employees. 

In 1884 (c. 222) railroad corporations were required 
to use safety couplers on freight cars. These are to 
be tested by the railroad commissioners (1886, c. 242). 
In 1886 (c. 120) such corporations were required to 



84 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS, 

fill or block the frogs, switches and guard rails on 
their tracks, so that the feet of the employees might 
not be caught in them. Instances were narrated in 
which men walking backward in making up trains had 
caught their feet in these traps and had been killed 
before they could extricate themselves, These laws 
were enacted by the direct effort of those who urged 
the labor legislation and were considered among their 
measures. 

Women and minors in mercantile establishments 
have been the subject of legislation for their health, 
comfort and education. Sympathy for women and 
shop girls who were compelled to stand for hours 
behind counters, even though there might be ample 
opportunity to sit, thus endangering health and life 
by the prolonged strain, led to this law (1882, c. 150), 
with a penalty of from ten to thirty dollars : 

"Every person or corporation employing females in any man- 
ufacturing, mechanical or mercantile establishment in this Com- 
monwealth shall provide suitable seats for the use of the females 
so employed, and shall permit the use of such seats by them when 
they are not necessarily engaged in the active duties for which 
they are employed." 

The prohibition upon employing women or minors 
under eighteen years over ten hours a day in manu- 
facturing establishments was extended in 1883 (c. 157) 
to mechanical and mercantile establishments. The 
same subject was up the next year (1884, c. 275) and 



LABOR LEGISLATION. 85 

it was enacted that no minor under eighteen years 
should be employed in laboring in any mechanical 
establishment more than sixty hours in any one week, 
under penalty of from fifty to one hundred dollars. 
Conspicuous notices of the hours to be observed must 
be posted. The application of the law to mercantile 
establishments was repealed by this last act. 

To induce employees to have a greater interest in 
their employer's business and to give them a share of 
the profits, a law has been passed (1886, c. 209) au- 
thorizing corporations to issue special stock to be held 
by their employees only. The par value of a share is 
to be ten dollars to be paid for in monthly instalments 
of one dollar. Proportional dividends are to be al- 
lowed to stock fully paid for, and the stock cannot be 
sold, except to fellow employees or to the corporation 
itself. This law owes its existence to Mr. Moseley of 
Newburyport, since secretary of the national inter-state 
commerce commission. 

The regulation of convict labor has in recent years 
been a fertile issue in Massachusetts with "labor legis- 
lators," but the conservative element has for the most 
part held the others in check. In 1883 (c. 217) the 
number of prisoners who could be employed in any 
prison under any contract was limited as follows, in 
order that "honest labor" in the same industries might 
not suffer by competition : 



86 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

" — in the manufacture of men's, boys 1 and youths' boots and 
shoes, not more than one hundred and fifty ; in the manufacture 
of women's, misses' and children's boots and shoes, not more than 
one hundred and fifty; in the manufacture of hats, not more 
than one hundred and fifty ; in the manufacture of brushes, not 
more than one hundred ; in the manufacture of wood mouldings, 
not more than one hundred; in the manufacture of harnesses, 
not more than one hundred ; or in any other industry, not to ex- 
ceed one hundred and fifty." 

In 1887, after long agitation and after wide re- 
searches by the committee on prisons, a bill was hur- 
riedly forced through on the last day of the session 
(c. 447), providing in much detail for work on the 
state account system. As the law is the prospective 
(February, 1888) object of repeal or great modifica- 
tion, it cannot be said yet to embody the sense of the 
state. 

A distinct labor enactment was that (1887, c. 263) 
"to make the first Monday of September, known as 
Labor's holiday, a legal holiday ." 

Another labor law of the same session (1887, c. 272) 
allows voters employed in manufacturing, mechanical 
or mercantile establishments two hours after the open- 
ing of the polls in which to vote. Employers violat- 
ing the law are liable to a fine of from twenty to fifty 
dollars for each offence. 

The labor wing of the legislature, helped by a few 
from the other side, has endeavored to pass a law and 
has come very near it by which the state shall build 






LABOR LEGISLATION. 87 

small houses for laboring people to cost but a few hun- 
dred dollars each and to be paid for, principal and in- 
terest, in small sums. The chief advocate of the plan 
in the legislature was Mr. Robert Treat Paine in 1884 
and, outside of the legislature, Mr. John M. Berry, who 
was the chief incorporator of the Lynn Workingmen's 
Aid Association (1880, c. 195), which renders such aid 
to men of small means. But no other act than that of 
1880 has been passed. 



TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 

State Bonds — Savings Banks — Co-operative Banks— Rail- 
roads — Insurance — Loan and Trust Companies— Elec- 
tricity — Gas — Insolvency — Agriculture — Limited Part- 
nerships — Payments by Instalments — Checks. 

If one looks over the tilings which the state within 
the ten years has ordered to be done, he will notice 
that a large proportion of them relate to what may be 
called its business and financial development. In other 
words, the state is proceeding rapidly, but cautiously, 
to make it easier for its citizens to acquire the good 
things of life. Though the broad opportunities are 
laid down in the constitution, yet the detail could not 
be foreseen by the state in its less developed condition, 
and new places are constantly found where the per- 
mission of the law is necessary for the development 
of new lines of investment for capital, for the promo- 
tion of new kinds of enterprises, and for the protection 
of property rights from new dangers which are found 
to be. inherent in the changes continually made as busi- 
ness adapts itself to new forms and circumstances. 

In the latter part of the ten years, especially, this 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 89 

class of business legislation has developed rapidly, 
showing that the capital and labor of the state are 
accumulating an increasing amount from their profits 
and savings with which to enter into the production 
of other things for health, convenience or comfort. 
The Blue books of the later years are larger than ever 
before, and one who observes their contents will find 
that the growth is natural, as is the growth of that 
community whose enlarged sphere of action, extending 
in every direction from the center, finds ever before 
it an enlarging sphere of opportunity. This develop- 
ment seems to be healthful, and to be the right result 
of enterprise founded in reason, pushed with vigor, 
and backed by frugality and caution. It is not the 
unhealthy product of trade artificially stimulated by 
fictitious rewards. 

In taking up now this legislation somewhat in detail 
by classes, to indicate the development of the state in 
this field, there may be put, first of all, a declaration 
of the state when the terrible effects of the long 
national debauch upon paper money had so broken 
the hopes of those who looked for a speedy recovery, 
that many were demanding a return to the cause of 
their suffering as a remedy for their pain. Debts were 
pressing. The years of retribution had been long. 
Even though the evil was in way of recovery and the 
worst had passed, yet the delusion of greenbackism 



90 TEN YEAKS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

had many followers, and the temptation to pay the 
public debt in depreciated money was irresistible to 
many. Then (1878, c. 11) the state declared : 

"The interest and principal of all scrip or bonds of the Com- 
monwealth of Massachusetts are payable, and when due, shall be 
paid in gold coin or its equivalent.'" 

That was the good faith and honor of Massachusetts 
under temptation. 



Savings Banks. 

In looking at what the state has done for the benefit 
of its people in their private finances directly, the care 
for the savings bank system is of high importance, 
for it relates to many thousand persons and to the 
solid prosperity of the small home-makers, upon whom 
rests much of the well-being of the whole. First on 
the list is what was popularly called the "stay law" 
(1878, c. 73), which gave rise to ridicule and defama- 
tion from outsiders, though it was wholly different 
from the " stay laws," with which it was invidiously 
compared. It was near the end of the financial depres- 
sion, after the crash of 1873, though not so near but 
that savings banks were unable to realize the face of 
their loans on mortgaged real estate, and in the case 
of at least one Boston bank, an excited run for several 
days had blocked the street with alarmed and despond- 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 91 

ent depositors. The bank weathered the storm, but 
others were in no condition to meet such a run. 
Under such pressure, the law was hastily enacted, like 
a command for the common safety of a boat-load of 
people, not all to rush to one side at once and capsize 
the boat, but to keep their places. The important 
section is in full, as follows : 

11 Whenever, in the judgment of the board of commissioners of 
savings banks, the security and welfare of the depositors in any 
savings bank in this Commonwealth shall require a limitation or 
regulation of payments to its depositors, said board may, by an 
order in writing directed to such bank, limit and regulate such 
payments in time and amount as the interests of all the depositors 
may require. Such order shall fully express the terms of said 
limitation or regulation ; and it may be changed or wholly re- 
voked whenever in the judgment of said commissioners the wel- 
fare of the depositors in such bank shall so require. 1 ' 

An aggrieved person had the right of appeal to the 
supreme judicial court, which should give public hear- 
ing upon the facts, and then affirm or annul the order 
of the commissioners. The law was self-limited to 
three years. It produced instantly the desired effect 
of preventing runs, and thus secured to depositors full 
payment of their deposits which they might otherwise 
have lost. 

The same year was enacted a law (1878, c. 253) to 
regulate the practices of receivers of savings banks for 
the better management of the property and for the 
protection of depositors. By law of 1880 (c. 162), the 



92 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

trustees of every savings bank are required to file with 
the savings bank commissioners a copy of the bond of 
their treasurer, and every treasurer must give a new 
bond as often as once in five years (1886, c. 93). In 
1881 (c. 214) the improved financial situation giving 
new opportunities for safe investment, the strict lim- 
itations upon savings banks were relaxed so that they 
might invest in the safe first mortgage bonds of any 
New England railroad, or in notes secured by such 
bonds. Investments in public funds and bank stock 
were also given a wider field, but still were much 
restricted. That the public may know who are re- 
sponsible for investments, it has been enacted (1883, 
c. 50) that the names of the boards of investment in 
savings banks must be advertised semi-annually in a 
newspaper in the county, the first time to be within 
thirty days of the election of the board. 

To keep savings banks from too close connection 
with other banks, warned by disastrous examples, no 
savings bank can invest or hold as collateral security 
(1882, c. 224) more than three per cent, of its deposits 
in any state or national bank, nor can it deposit (1886, 
c. 95) over five per cent, of its total deposits in any 
one national bank, or trust company, or to an amount 
over twenty-five per cent, of the capital stock and sur- 
plus of such bank or company. 

It was further enacted in the same spirit (1884, 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 93 

c. 253) that savings banks should do business at their 
banking houses only, should not receive or pay de- 
posits at any other place, and the house must be in the 
city or town where the corporation is. 

By three several enactments the field for invest- 
ment has been gradually enlarged to include state 
bonds of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Indi- 
ana, Wisconsin, Iowa and the District of Columbia; 
also the municipal bonds of any city in those states 
and New York state with over fifty thousand people 
and not over five per cent, net debt, or any notes 
secured by such bonds to eighty per cent, of their 
face; bonds and notes of incorporated districts in 
Massachusetts with not over five per cent, net debt; 
and further in New England railroad securities. A 
law of 1887 (c. 423) reduced the population qualifi- 
cation mentioned above to thirty thousand. By act of 
1886 (c. 69) one third of the deposits and income may 
be invested in personal securities, not to run over a 
year, with two sureties, when principal and sureties 
are all residents and citizens of the state. 

To add to the safety of depositors, no borrower on 
personal security, including corporations and partner- 
ships, can borrow (1884, c. 168) over five per cent, of 
the deposits and income. In 1881 (c. 305) the tax on 
savings banks' deposits was reduced from three-fourths 
to one half of one per cent. 



94 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Some savings banks hold a large amount of money 
in the names of depositors who have not been heard 
from for a long time and probably never will be heard 
from again. To provide a means of restoring this 
money to the owner or heirs, if possible, a law was 
passed in 1887 (c. 319), Mr. "felker of Worcester hav- 
ing more to do with its passage than any other one 
member, requiring savings banks treasurers to report 
to the savings bank commissioners sworn statements of 

" — the name, the amount standing to his credit, the last known 
place of residence or post-office address and the fact of death, if 
known to such treasurer, of every depositor who shall not have 
made a deposit therein or withdrawn therefrom any part of his 
deposit, or any part of the interest thereon, for a period of more 
than twenty years next preceding." 

Advertisement of these particulars is to be made by 
the treasurers, but the law does not apply to depositors 
known to be living, nor to sums under twenty-five 
dollars. 

Development of the savings bank system continues 
and banks have lately been established by special law 
in Warren (1882), South Framingham (1883), Read- 
ing (1885), Somerville (1885), Belmont (1885), the 
North Middlesex (1885), Holyoke (1885), West New- 
ton (1887) and Conway (1887). 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 95 



Co-operative Banks. 



Co-operative saving fund and loan associations, as 
business investments for men of small means and as 
inducements to home building, have received care in 
late years and have been put under the supervision of 
the savings bank commissioners (1878, c. 52) who 
have all the powers over them that they do over sav- 
ings banks (1879, c. 129). Regulation of the manner 
of distributing profits and losses is made (1881, c. 271) 
and also the method of paying for the shares. The 
name of the associations has been changed to " co-oper- 
ative banks " (1885, c. 121) and the maintenance of a 
guaranty fund is required. Shares may be issued 
(1887, c. 216) up to one million dollars. The method - 
of withdrawing unpledged shares and of shares issued 
to minors is regulated, also the treatment of partial 
payments of loans on real estate and the retirement 
of shares. 

Rallkoad Development. 

As to its railroad policy, the ten years have seen the 
state abandon its holding of railroad stocks and with- 
draw from any share in railroad management and in- 
vestment as far as possible. It has sold its Boston and 
Albany stock, its New York and New England stock, 



96 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

and the Hoosac Tunnel, with its accompanying line of 
over forty miles of track. Each of these transactions 
has been on a large scale and each, except the last, 
has had its dramatic interest in a marked sensational 
event. 

The development of railroad law has not been exten- 
sive since the thorough codification in 1874. In order 
to prevent the imperiling of property by projected 
railroads and to limit railroad building to persons of 
ability and good faith, it was enacted (1878, c. 215) 
that: 

" No railroad corporation shall be authorized to locate or con- 
struct its road or any branch or extension thereof or to enter upon 
and use any land or other property except for making surveys, 
until a sworn estimate of the total cost of constructing the same, 
prepared by the chief engineer of the corporation shall have been 
submitted to the board of railroad commissioners and approved 
by them ; nor until it shall also have been made to appear to the 
satisfaction of said board that there has been actually subscribed 
by responsible parties, without any condition which invalidates 
the subscription, an amount of the capital stock of said corpora- 
tion equal to at least fifty per centum of such estimated cost of 
construction, and that twenty per centum of the par value of 
each and every share has been actually paid into the treasury." 

It was further enacted (1882, c. 265) that no road 
shall be constructed without a certificate from the rail- 
road commissioners that the public convenience and 
necessity require it, and the articles of association are 
to be void, unless the certificate of incorporation is 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 97 

issued within one year from the time the route is fixed. 
No steam railroad, or part of one, is to be located 
within three miles of the state house without the writ- 
ten consent of the railroad commissioners and of the 
mayor and aldermen, or of the selectmen where the 
location is desired. 

Railroad consolidation has progressed greatly during 
the ten years. The Worcester and Nashua was au- 
thorized (1883, c. 129) to unite with the Nashua and 
Rochester. The Boston and Lowell was authorized 
(1886, c. 278) to unite with the Boston, Concord and 
Montreal and with several other roads to the north 
operated by it. The Lowell road has leased the Cen- 
tral Massachusetts and then leased itself, with the 
Central, to the Boston and Maine, which had already 
leased the Eastern. After the session of 1887, the 
Boston and Providence was leased to the Old Colony, 
leaving the act to be passed upon by the legislature. 

By act of 1879 (c. 274) fifteen persons or more, a 
majority of them inhabitants of this state, may form a 
corporation to build railroads in foreign countries. 
This was passed to enable Massachusetts capitalists to 
engage in railroad building in Mexico, which was then 
looked upon with much favor. 

For the benefit of fast trains and for the safety of 
travellers, a law of 1885 (c. 85) permits the establish- 
ment of interlocking or automatic signals where rail- 
7 



98 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

roads cross each other at grade, and another of the 
same year (c. 194) promotes the abolition of grade 
crossings of highways. 

Street railway development may be briefly noticed. 
After a persistent struggle for years, during which 
several schemes for elevated roads in Boston were pre- 
sented as rivals, the Meigs Elevated Railway company 
was chartered (1884, c. 87) to have a capital of one 
hundred thousand dollars a mile and to run between 
Boston and Cambridge. The ingenious invention 
which was thus given a possibility of life is the work 
of Captain Joe V. Meigs, and to him the enterprise 
owes its existence in the face of discouraging obstacles. 
But beyond building an experimental track in Cam- 
bridge, it had made no construction in the ten years 
under review. 

To enable street railways to use the inventions of 
the times, a law of 1886 (c. 337) permits the use of 
the cable system. The consolidation of the street rail- 
ways of Boston, permitted by act of 1886 (c. 229), but 
not completed till after the passage of the much-talked- 
about West End Bill of 1887 (c. 413), is to be noticed 
as a tendency of the times in that direction. 

To prevent discrimination by railroad corporations 
in freight rates, a matter which has since had the 
attention of the interstate commerce commission, a law 
was passed in 1882 (c. 94) that 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 99 

"No railroad corporation shall discriminate in charges for the 
transportation of freight against or in favor of any person, firm 
or corporation, or demand or accept from any person, firm or 
corporation for the transportation of freight, a higher or lower 
rate, or demand or grant terms more or less favorable, than 
those demanded or accepted from any other person, firm or 
corporation for like service." 

But, after two years of trial, this was repealed and 
superseded by the following modified form (1884, 
c. 225) : 

"No railroad company shall in its charges for the transporta- 
tion of freight or in doing its freight business make or give any 
undue or unreasonable preference or advantage to or in favor 
of any person, firm or corporation, nor subject any person, firai 
or corporation to any undue or unreasonable prejudice or dis- 
advantage. 1 ' 

Even earlier than this the matter had come up, and 
a law was enacted (1879, c. 206) to prevent discrimin- 
ation, but it related to milk only, and grew out of 
difficulties with railroad customers, who considered 
themselves injured by better rates given to rival milk 
dealers. 

Insurance Changes. 

The body of insurance legislation in the ten years 
has been large and important, mostly for the extension 
of the system, at the same time with added protection 
to the insured. Fire insurance companies of other 
states have been given added powers and duties in 



100 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Massachusetts (1878, c. 12) ; the dividends of joint- 
stock fire, marine and fire-marine companies of the 
state are forbidden (1878, c. 35) to exceed ten per 
cent, cash; the insurance commissioner is to be the 
attorney in this state of insurance companies of other 
states and countries (1878, c. 36) ; the number, extent 
and origin of fires, the amount of damage and of 
insurance, and the names of the owners or occupants 
of the premises must be sent to the commissioner 
every January by every city and town (1878, c. 104) ; 
foreign companies cannot do business in the state 
without depositing a sum equal to that required of 
state companies (1878, c. 130) ; fire insurance in ex- 
cess of " the fair value of the property " is forbidden 
(1878, c. 162) ; no unlicensed persons or associations 
can engage in insurance (1878, c. 218) ; a standard 
form of insurance policy has been established (1880, 
c. 175, and 1881, c. 166) ; no policy of life or endow- 
ment insurance issued by a state company can become 
void for non-payment of premium after two full annual 
premiums have been paid (1880, c. 232), any stipula- 
tion to the contrary notwithstanding (1881, c. 63) ; 
re-insurance cannot be effected with a company or 
individual not authorized to do business in the state 
(1883, c. 33, and 1884, c. 120) ; a change in the form 
of securities deposited may be made (1883, c. 107) ; 
foreign fire insurance companies are given an option 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 101 

(1884, c. 58) of returning their foreign business in 
their report to the commissioner, but if they do not 
return it, they cannot advertise it here; insurance 
directors may be elected by classes (1884, c. 74), so 
that the whole board cannot be changed at once ; 
marine companies may insure against fire and light- 
ning (1884, c. 177) ; life companies must not discrim- 
inate against persons of color (1884, c. 235) — a law 
owing its existence solely to the effort of Mr. Chap- 
pelle of Boston, the only member of color in the legis- 
lature that year ; citizens may be licensed to procure 
fire insurance policies in companies not authorized to 
transact business in the state (1885, c. 300) ; mutual 
fire insurance companies may be formed with a sub- 
scription fund of from two hundred thousand to one 
million dollars (1885, c. 394) ; Canada has been added 
to the field of mutual fire insurance companies (1886, 
c. 222) ; finally, the whole body of insurance law has 
been codified (1887, c. 217), as the last work and 
monument of the late Commissioner Tarbox. 

The new kinds of insurance permitted within the 
state by laws of the last ten years are fidelity insurance 
(1881, c. 51, 1884, c. 296 and 1885, c. 241), and real 
estate title insurance (1884, c. 180). 

A rapid growth of assessment insurance has taken 
place during the decade and annual reports are re- 
quired of such companies by act of 1880 (c. 196). 



102 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Fraudulent concerns were formed which imposed upon 
the public and the entire law was revised, strengthened 
and codified in 1885 (c. 183). The formation of as- 
sessment associations was at once checked and the 
system is now working out its development under the 
protection of law for honest dealing with the insured. 

Loan and Trust Companies. 

A noticeable feature of recent business legislation 
is the incorporation of loan and trust companies whose 
incorporators are usually moneyed men and whose 
capital is large. Each of these companies has a spe- 
cial charter and an attempt to frame a general law was 
found to excite so much opposition and to be so im- 
practicable, as the companies persuaded the legislature, 
that it was abandoned. The tendency to form com- 
panies of this sort is a feature of the times. There are 
to be noticed the following corporations within the ten 
years: the International Trust company (1879), cap- 
ital, $1,000,000 to 11,500,000; the American Loan and 
Trust company (1881), capital, $250,000 to 11,000,000; 
the Springfield Safe Deposit and Trust company 
(1885), capital, $100,000 to $500,000; the National 
Mortgage and Debenture company (1886), capital, 
$500,000; the New Bedford Safe Deposit and Trust 
company (1887), capital, $100,000 to $500,000; the 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 103 

B. M. C. Durfee Safe Deposit and Trust company of 
FaU River (1887), capital, $100,000 to $500,000; the 
Bay State Trust company (1887), capital, $200,000 to 
$1,000,000 ; the Commonwealth Safe Deposit and Trust 
company (1887), capital, $2,000,000 to $10,000,000; 
the Lynn Safe Deposit and Trust company (1887), 
capital, $100,000 to $300,000; the Boston Water Trust 
and Investment company (1887), capital, $500,000; 
the Manufacturers' Loan and Trust company of Hol- 
yoke (1887), capital, $100,000 to $500,000; the Suf- 
folk Trust and Investment company (1887), capital, 
$100,000 to $1,000,000 ; and the Hampden Loan and 
Trust company of Springfield (1887), capital, $100,000 
to $500,000. 



The Field of Electricity. 

Regulation of telegraph and telephone companies is 
a growing feature of recent legislation. The local 
authorities are given power (1880, c. 83) to make 
reasonable regulations for the erection and mainte- 
nance of wires (including telegraph, telephone, fire 
and police) and the erection of lines may be prevented, 
or lines already erected may be removed at the ex- 
pense of the owner or contractor. Lines for electric 
lights are put under the same rules as far as applicable 
(1883, c. 221). Putting wires upon any person's prop- 



104 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

erty without his consent may be punished by one 
hundred dollars' fine (1884, c. 202). Telephone com- 
panies are forbidden (1885, c. 267) to discriminate 
between telegraph companies. This grew out of a 
complaint by the Baltimore and Ohio telegraph com- 
pany that it was not served on the same terms as the 
Western Union. To prevent the aggrandizement of 
the American Bell Telephone company, it was forbid- 
den (1886, c. 326) to hold over thirty per cent, of the 
capital stock of any subordinate telephone company. 
To secure greater care in the transmission of tele- 
graphic messages, a penalty of one hundred dollars 
may be imposed (1885, c. 380) for each case of dam- 
ages up to that amount, actually caused by negligence. 
New inventions for lighting and heating have de- 
manded the attention of the law-makers. In 1879 
(c. 202) corporations with a capital of from five thou- 
sand to five hundred thousand dollars were authorized 
to be formed to sell gas, steam or hot water for light- 
ing, heating, cooking or mechanical power. Gas com- 
panies could also engage in the business, and in 1885 
(c. 240) a law authorized the formation of corporations 
to supply gas for heating, cooking, chemical and me- 
chanical uses. By law of 1886 (c. 250) the gas of 
every company with over fifty consumers must be 
inspected at least twice a year, with an additional 
inspection for every six million feet oi gas furnished. 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 105 

In 1885 occurred the great gas contest in the legisla- 
ture, resulting in a law (c. 814) establishing a board 
of gas commissioners and practically giving every es- 
tablished company a monopoly in the city or town 
where located. This course of public policy was de- 
cided upon on the ground that it had been shown by 
experience that competing gas companies resulted 
ultimately, by consolidation and advance of prices to 
make up the losses of previous competition, in more 
expense to the people than a single company. Ag- 
grieved consumers may appeal to the commission, 
which has power to reduce rates. Great power is 
given to the commission and further regulations are 
laid down in the law of the following year (1886, 
c. 346), one of which is that "no gas company shall 
transfer its franchise, lease its works, or contract with 
any person, association or corporation to carry on its 
works, without the authority of the legislature." Gas 
companies have been empowered in a general law 
(1887, c. 385) to furnish electric light and the board 
of gas commissioners has been made a board of gas 
and electric light commissioners. 



Miscellaneous Matters. 

The insolvency laws have been changed in some 
detail in the ten years. An insolvent debtor may be 



106 TEX YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

examined under oath (1881, c. 235) by the assignee or 
by any creditor before a judge upon all matters relat- 
ing to his insolvency and any person suspected of 
fraudulent connection with the insolvency may be 
examined in like manner. Refusal to answer is pun- 
ishable by imprisonment. In order to avoid going 
through the regular course of insolvency, a law was 
enacted in 1884 (c. 236) to provide a method of com- 
position in insolvency, with full provision for division 
of the assets equitably and a discharge from insolv- 
ency. The course of proceeding was modified in 1886 
(c. 353). The causes which shall prevent a discharge 
from insolvency were changed and restated in 1886 
(c. 322). An act of 1887 (c. 340) confirms the acts 
done in good faith in a voluntary assignment by an 
insolvent person, notwithstanding subsequent insolv- 
ency proceedings by or against him. 

Farmers and their pecuniary interests have been the 
subject of legislation to a slight degree. Several acts 
have been passed to control contagious diseases among 
domestic animals and they were codified in 1887 
(c. 252). Plantations of timber trees are exempt from 
taxation (1878, c. 131 and 1880, c. 109), but this was 
done more to benefit the climate of the state by 
encouraging forests than to benefit the owners of 
woodland. "Wanton destruction of forest by fire is 
punishable (1882, c. 163) by one hundred dollars' fine 



BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT. 107 

or by six months' imprisonment. An elaborate bill 
for the preservation of forests was passed in 1882 
(c. 255), authorizing towns and cities to make appro- 
priations for that object, empowering the state board 
of agriculture to act as a state board of forestry and 
and permitting the taking of land for forests to be held 
as public domain. Strict regulations have been made 
for the inspection and sale of commercial fertilizers 
(1878, c. 258). 

Some miscellaneous business acts are of interest to 
show certain tendencies or oddities. The Boston Lim- 
ited Partnership company of 1885 (c. 208) was formed 
to loan money to likely young men to give them a 
start in business, and the company was to be a limited 
partner with them. By act of 1887 (c. 248) a limited 
partnership, lawfully succeeding to the business of a 
firm, may use the firm's name, upon consent of its 
members or of their legal representatives. 

The Board of Aid to Land Ownership (1878, c. 148) 
was a half business, half philanthropic organization to 
help settlers to the west, somewhat after the manner 
of the Rugby settlement in Tennessee. It was formed 
while many people were still idle who would have 
gone west, had they had a chance, but the changed 
industrial situation soon made the board superfluous. 

Abuses of the customers of those who sold furniture 
and other articles on the instalment plan, led to a law 



108 TEN YEABS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

(1884, c. 313) to prevent poor people with small busi- 
ness experience, especially women, from being made 
the victims of sharpers. 

Occasional inconvenience and loss was the cause of 
the law of 1885 (c. 210) authorizing the payment of 
checks, demand drafts and savings bank orders, in case 
of the death of the drawer before payment, without 
waiting for the settlement of the estate. 



TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 109 



TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 

Sixth-class License — Liquor Transportation — Civil Dam- 
age Law — Punishment for Drunkenness — The Screen 
Law — Abuttor's Objection — School-house Law — Sure- 
ties — Sales at Night — Election Days — Sales Forbidden 
to Certain Persons — Temperance Text-books — Habitual 
Drunkards — Pigeon-holing Appealed Cases — Cigarettes 
— Liquor Clubs — Riots — Common Nuisance — Forfeiture 
of License — Prima Facie Law — Druggists and Apothe- 
caries — Patent Ballot Boxes. 

Last of all, in our view of the growth of Massa- 
chusetts, we come to a development of public morals 
which is worth separate notice because of its high 
importance — the liquor question. It is associated not 
only with morals, but with public administration, with 
religion, with education, with society, with life and 
health, with the labor question and with the business 
interests, and in every place it is present as a curse. 
It comes into every department of state development, 
changing, hindering and injuring the progress of the 
Commonwealth. No other subject approaches it in 
perennial interest in the legislature. Other matters 
rise and fall in apparent importance, but liquor meas- 
ures have more interest for the members, session after 



110 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

session, than anything else. A liquor debate is sure 
of attention. Personal sympathy, in opposition or 
support, is always excited by liquor bills, as if the 
members had themselves some tiling to gain or lose. 
Something is attempted every year, and there is no 
doubt that the state is honest in its determination to 
restrict liquor selling in every practicable way. If 
the state could be satisfied that prohibition would stop 
selling better than the local option law, there is no 
doubt, from the temper of successive legislatures, that 
prohibition would be enacted. 

At the beginning of the ten years the local option 
law was in force and has so remained, but at nearly 
every point where it has seemed possible to get a twist 
on the liquor dealers, the screws have been applied. 
Below will be found noted the several steps of the 
state's progress in fighting the liquor business. 

In 1878 (c. 203) was established a new class of 
licenses, the sixth, that of druggists and apothecaries 
" to sell liquors of any kind for medicinal, mechanical 
and chemical purposes only, and to such persons only 
as may certify in writing for what use they want it ; " 
fee, one dollar. Records were to be kept, open at all 
times to official inspection, showing the date of pur- 
chase, the name and residence of the purchaser, the 
kind and quality of the liquor, the purpose in using 
it, and the price. 



TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. Ill 

The same year (1878, c. 207) it was enacted that 

" No person shall bring into any town or city in which licenses 
are not granted any spirituous or intoxicating liquors, with intent 
to sell the same himself, or to have the same sold by another, or 
having reasonable cause to believe that the same is intended to be 
sold in violation of law." 

The penalty for violation was forfeiture of the liquor. 

In 1879 (c. 297) came the so-called "civil damages" 
law, which was stoutly opposed by the liquor interests. 
It says that 

" Every husband, wife, child, parent, guardian, employer, or 
other person, who shall be injured in person or property, or 
means of support, by any intoxicated person, or in consequence 
of the intoxication, habitual or otherwise, of any person, shall 
have a right of action in his or her own name, severally or jointly, 
against any person or persons who shall, by selling or giving 
intoxicating liquors, have caused the intoxication, in whole or 
in part of such person; and any person or persons owning, 
renting, leasing, or permitting the occupation of, any building or 
premises, and having knowledge that intoxicating liquors are to 
be sold therein, or who, having leased the same for other pur- 
poses, shall knowingly permit therein the sale of any intoxicating 
liquors, shall, if any such liquors sold or given therein, have 
caused, in whole or in part, the intoxication of any person, be 
liable severally or jointly, with the person or persons selling or 
giving intoxicating liquors as aforesaid, for all damages sustained, 
and the same may be recovered in an action of tort." 

The owner or lessor, paying a penalty under the 
act, may recover it from the tenant under action of 
contract. This law, however, has been but little used. 

By law of 1880 (c. 221) the second offence of drunk- 
enness was made punishable by one dollar fine or ten 



112 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

days' imprisonment. A male person, convicted of a 
third offence, might be punished by ten dollars' fine 
or a year's imprisonment. This law was modified in 
1881 (c. 276), so that the first penalty should apply to 
the first offence, and should include costs. The sec- 
ond offence of a male person within twelve months 
was made punishable by five dollars' fine and costs, or 
two months' imprisonment, the third offence's punish- 
ment remaining the same as before. But even this 
policy was not satisfactory, and in 1885 (c. 365) the 
third offence was made punishable by sentence to the 
Concord reformatory for from one to two years, and 
the first offence was made punishable (1885, c. 375) 
by raising the fine from one to five dollars and the 
imprisonment from ten to thirty days. 

Licenses of the first three classes (retailers') must 
specify (1880, c. 239) the rooms in which they are 
to be exercised, and cannot be exercised elsewhere. 
The licensee may be required to close permanently all 
entrances to the licensed premises, except from the 
street where located, under penalty of forfeiting the 
license. A free view of the premises may be ordered 
— the germ of the screen law. Intoxicating liquor is 
to include all with over three per cent, in volume of 
alcohol at sixty degrees Fahrenheit. 

Conviction of illegal sale must be certified (1880, 
c. 249) to the board issuing the license. 



TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 113 

In 1881 (c. 54) the law for taking the local option 
vote was put into its latest form, except the regulation 
of the size and typography of the ballots (1886, c. 49). 

The famous screen law was enacted in 1881 (c. 225), 
and the essential words are these : 

"And no such licensed person shall place or maintain, or 
authorize or permit to be placed or maintained, upon any prem- 
ises used by him for the sale of spirituous or intoxicating liquors 
under the provisions of his license, any screen, blind, shutter, 
curtain, partition, or painted, ground, or stained glass window, 
or any other obstruction, which shall interfere with a view of the 
business conducted upon the premises. No person licensed as 
aforesaid shall expose in any window upon his premises any 
bottles or casks or other vessels containing, or purporting to con- 
tain, intoxicating liquors, in such way as to interfere with a view 
of the business conducted upon the premises." 

Putting up an obstruction voids the license (1882, 
c. 259). 

Following this (1881, c. 226) was enacted a law 
making the buildings used by liquor clubs in no-license 
cities and towns common nuisances. 

The next restriction on the trade was to require 
all applications for a license to be advertised (1881, 
c. 255), so that the abutters might be informed, and 
objection made, if desired. If the owner of adjoining 
real estate objected within ten days, the license could 
not be granted. This "abutter's objection" law was 
evaded afterward in some cases by selling a strip of 
land a few inches wide to some friend of the liquor 
8 



114 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

seller, so that the objector was no longer an abnttor. 
This trick was met in 1887 (c. 323) by extending the 
right of objection so as to cover twenty-five feet on 
each side of the property. 

The "four hundred feet" law — that no retailer's 
license shall be granted for liquor selling within four 
hundred feet, on the same street, of a building used in 
whole or in part for a public school — was enacted in 
1882 (c. 220), and was at once enforced amid much 
interest, particularly in Boston. 

Official inspection and analysis of liquor is provided 
for in detail (1882, c. 221). Common victuallers must 
close their premises (1882, c. 242) between midnight 
and five o'clock in the morning. 

No surety on the bond of a licensee can be accepted 
who is not worth at least two thousand dollars over all 
liabilities (1882, c. 259). 

Sale or delivery of liquor to a person who has re- 
ceived public charity within the twelve months next 
preceding the date of the license is forbidden (1884, 
c. 158). 

The hours in which liquor selling is prohibited to 
licensed persons have been lengthened (1885, c. 90), 
so that the period of closed doors is from eleven p. m. 
to six a.m., instead of from midnight to six o'clock. 
This act was fought stubbornly on the ground that the 
hour next before midnight was one of the most profit- 



TEMPE11ANCE LEGISLATION. 115 

able, and that the saloons were then most patronized, 
especially in Boston. But the legislature held to the 
argument that by that time of night most people ought 
to be in bed. 

The sale or delivery of liquor on election days is 
prohibited to common victuallers and to innholders, 
except to registered guests, under fifty dollars' penalty 
(1885, c. 216). This was done to prevent the pres- 
ence of an unusual number of intoxicated men on the 
streets on election days, which had become a scandal, 
especially in Boston. 

To prevent liquor-selling to a person with the liquor 
habit, written notice, signed by the mayor or select- 
men, may be given to any seller, forbidding any sale 
to the person named in the notice, and if liquor is sold 
to that person within twelve months, the mayor or 
selectmen may bring suit for damages for from one 
hundred to five hundred dollars (1885, c. 282). 

The temperance text-book law (1885, c. 332) is as 
follows : 

"Physiology and hygiene, which, in both divisions of the sub- 
ject, shall include special instruction as to the effects of alcoholic 
drinks, stimulants and narcotics on the human system, shall be 
taught as a regular branch of study to all pupils in all schools 
supported wholly or in part by public money, except special 
schools maintained solely for instruction in particular branches, 
such as drawing, mechanics, art, and like studies. All acts or 
parts of acts relating to the qualifications of teachers in the public 
schools shall apply to the branch of study prescribed in this act." 



116 TEN YEAES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

Any habitual drunkard may be committed to a state 
lunatic hospital (1885, c. 339), and not be released 
" unless it appears probable that he will not continue 
to be subject to dipsomania or habitual drunkenness, 
or that his confinement therein is not longer necessary 
for the safety of the public or for his own welfare.'' 

Much dissatisfaction was felt for years because ap- 
pealed liquor cases were not tried, especially in Boston, 
but that they were " pigeonholed " by the district 
attorney. A law was passed to prevent this (1885, 
c. 359), and though efforts to repeal it were made in 
both 1886 and 1887, they failed. The law was that no 
liquor case should be "placed on file or disposed of, 
except by trial and judgment according to the regular 
course of proceedings in criminal cases, unless in any 
case the purposes of justice require other disposition 
thereof." 

The "cigarette law" was passed in 1886 (c. 72), 
when but little liquor legislation was enacted, thus : 

" No person shall sell any cigarette, snuff or tobacco in any of 
its forms to any person under sixteen years of age. No person 
other than the minor's parent or guardian shall give any cigar- 
ette, snuff or tobacco in any of its forms to any minor under six- 
teen years of age." 

Penalty, fifty dollars. So far as appears, the law has 
been left to enforce itself. 

In 1887 more interest than ever was shown in liquor 



TEMPEEANCE LEGISLATION. 117 

legislation, and though the prohibitory constitutional 
amendment was defeated, yet material addition was 
made to the restrictive liquor laws. Unlicensed sell- 
ing, distributing or dispensing intoxicating liquors by 
clubs, is prohibited (1887, c. 206), except by such as 
do not appear to be organized for the liquor business 
and are duly licensed. This device of clubs as a means 
of evading the license law had particular development 
in some of the cities. 

A consequence of the public disturbances during 
the Cambridge horse-car strike was the law (1887, 
c. 365), passed upon recommendation by Gov. Ames 
in a special message, empowering the local authorities 
in all places to close all retailers' establishments ih 
cases of riot or great public excitement, for not over 
three days at any one time, the penalty of keeping 
open to be two hundred dollars' fine and forfeiture of 
the license. 

Much is expected of the following law (1887, c. 380), 
which puts it in the power of ten men to close a saloon, 
without a trial and without that trouble with a jury 
which has so often been found a serious obstacle to the 
enforcement of the liquor laws : 

"The supreme judicial court and superior court shall have 
jurisdiction in equity upon information filed by the district attor- 
ney for the district or upon the petition of not less than ten legal 
voters of any town or city setting forth the fact that any building 1 , 
place or tenement therein is resorted to for prostitution, lewdness 



118 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

or illegal gaming, or is used for the illegal keeping or sale of 
intoxicating liquors, to restrain, enjoin or abate the same as a 
common nuisance, and an injunction for such purpose may be 
issued by any justice of either of said courts.'" 

Another screw on the liquor sellers is the law (1887, 
c. 392) that conviction of violating any part of the 
liquor code shall make void the license. 

In the case of illegal selling, all the implements and 
furniture may be seized (1887, c. 406), as well as the 
liquor itself. 

The "prima facie" law (1887, c. 414) is intended to 
facilitate convictions by making to be prima facie evi- 
dence of sales the exposing of any placard, sign or 
advertisement (except in a drug store), or of a United 
States tax receipt as dealer in spirituous or intoxicat- 
ing liquors, other than malt liquors. 

To check illegal selling by retail druggists and 
apothecaries, such persons are to be allowed only a 
sixth-class license (1887, c. 431), or a license for medic- 
inal, mechanical or chemical purposes only, and they 
are put under close restrictions as to keeping records 
of sales. 

The final liquor law of the session of 1887 was that 
(c. 443) to require the use of self-registering and self- 
cancelling ballot boxes in voting on the issue of liquor 
licenses under the local option law. This was in 
accord with a special message of Gov. Ames. The 
most important laws of the year are largely creditable 



TEMPERANCE LEGISLATION. 119 

to the efforts of Mr. Darling of Somerville, house 
chairman of the liquor law committee, upon whom fell 
the brunt of the contest. The house stood well by the 
committee, and other restrictive measures, notably the 
bill to prevent liquor selling in tenement houses and 
" kitchen dives " were passed by it, but only to be 
defeated in the senate. 



120 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



THE SUM OF IT ALL. 

The sum of it all is that the state has made material 
and manifest progress in the ten years. It is a better 
state than it was ten years ago. It has a keener per- 
ception of injustice to those who fail to secure justice, 
and a stronger purpose to redress wrongs done to its 
citizens, either by the working of civil forces or by the 
direct deeds of other citizens. The state is on a higher 
level than it was ten years ago, and the steps by which 
it has mounted are to be found in its laws. It is 
inspired by a stronger public virtue, and advances with 
a larger intelligence. If this seems to our friends in 
national union to be saying too much, it yet remains 
that at least the same public virtue and the same 
intelligence have secured a material addition to the 
rights and to the privileges of the large body of the 
people. 

But the advance of the state is opposed and threat- 
ened at every step. Not only has it to meet the dis- 
integrating forces of vice and ignorance, which are 
ever old, yet ever new, but it has also to face evils 
wholly new, growing out of the changes in its condi- 



THE SUM OF IT ALL. 121 

tion. The population of Massachusetts is becoming 
dense. Half of its people are in its cities, and the 
strength of the cities is from the country. Yet the 
proportion of the state which consumes men is con- 
stantly becoming larger, while the proportion which 
furnishes them for consumption is constantly becom- 
ing smaller. Immigration does not check, but aggra- 
vates the evil, and the question is whether the supply 
among the hills of the other New England states can 
satisfy the demand. The boys and girls of the state 
who grow up in cities, strangers to the freedom and 
strength of country life, without opportunity to work, 
save in the hotbeds of the public schools, and without 
scope to develop that self-reliance which is a second 
nature to those who must help themselves or go with- 
out, are constantly becoming a larger proportion of the 
whole. 

Social and business conditions are changing with 
the growing density of population and with the new 
industrial situation. Large establishments are increas- 
ing. Small enterprises are crushed or smothered by 
large ones. Aggregation of capital and concentration 
of labor are the rule. Men capable, under the old 
system, of making a sufficient competence, are forced 
by the iron laws of trade to take subordinate positions 
in these large establishments where they have no plans 
of their own to make, no field of their own to develop, 



122 TEN YEARS OF MASSACHUSETTS. 

no enterprise of their own to push to success, but only 
to do as best they may the will of their employer. 
As continual giving of charity to the poor tends to 
make them lean habitually upon others, to the loss of 
their own power of self-support, so this dependence of 
increasing numbers of capable men upon the will of a 
few tends to pauperize that spirit of manly independ- 
ence which has been the strength of the state in the 
past. As self-government in local affairs, free from 
interference by the central authority, tends to the per- 
manent well-being of the whole, so the management of 
his own affairs by the individual man tends to make 
the most of him. Massachusetts helps to local self- 
government in towns, but her business development 
tends to increase the ranks of the salaried men and to 
reduce the number of employers to the heads of a 
comparatively few great concerns. It is the resistless 
tendency of the times. 

With these dangers to its children and to its adults, 
it promises to be in the future the chief concern and 
pressing problem of the state how to raise men. 



INDEX 



A. 

PAGE 

Abandoned children 36, 58 

Abuttor's obj ection 113 

Accidents, railroad 66 

Accidents to employees 74 

Accounts, county 24 

Adulterations 60 

Amendments, constitutional.... 9 

Ames, Oliver 117, 118 

Analysis of liquor 114 

Apparatus, school 53 

Appealed liquor cases 116 

Arbitration 78 

B. 

Bail 22 

Ballot boxes 12 

Ballot regulations 13 

Ballots , counterfeiting 14 

Bartlett, Fred'k, C. S 28 

Beet sugar bounty 26 

Berry, John M 87 

Bets 45 

Birds and game 28 

Boilers, locomotive 66 

Boston, debt limit 25 

Brackett, John Q. A 20 

Bridges, highway 67 

Bridges, railroad 66 

Buildings, construction 68 

Curdett, Joseph 30 

Burials 71 

Butter, imitation 62, 63 

C. 
Car stoves 66 

Change of venue 22 

Chappelle.J. C 101 



page 

Charitable associations 59 

Check list 15 

Children, abandoned 58 

Children at am usements 48 

Children in factories 55 

Children in theatres 70 

Children, neglected 35, 36 

Churches, Congregational 41 

Churches, Roman Catholic • 42 

Cigarettes 116 

Cities, new 33 

City debts 25, 26 

Civil damages law Ill 

Civil service 29 

Claims 32 

Clark university 54 

Clubs, liquor 113, 117 

Coffin, Charles Carleton 20 

Colorblindness 65 

Colored persons 33 

Combustibles 67 

Commissions 28 

Common nuisance law 117 

Common victuallers 114 

Concord reformatory 38 

Constitutional amendments 9 

Contagious diseases 69 

Controller, county accounts 24 

Convict labor 85 

Co-operative banks 95 

Counterfeiting ballots 14 

County accounts 21 

Courts, district 21 

Courts, inferior 21 

Courts, police 21 

Court, superior, claims 32 

Court, superior, enlarged 22 

Court, superior, jurisdiction 22 

Cremation 7L 

123 



124 



INDEX. 



PAGE 

Criminals, habitual 23 

Crossings, railroad 66, 97 

Cumulative sentences 40 

D. 

Dangerous weapons 79 

Darling, Samuel C 119 

Debts of cities 25, 26 

Defacing voting lists 16 

Deformed persons 47 

Dickinson, John W 50 

Discharged convicts 39 

Diseases, contagious 69 

Discrimination, railroad 98 

District courts 21 

District police 18 

Divorced persons 57 

Divorces, fraudulent 49 

Divorces, jurisdiction 22 

Divorces, statistics 49 

Domestic animal's 106 

Double taxation 24 

Drugs, adulterated 61 

Drunkenness 112 

E. 

Election sermon 43 

Elections, good order at 14 

Elections, liquor at 115 

Electric bells 74 

Electrical inventions. 103, 104 

Electric light commission 29 

Elevated roads 98 

Elevators 69 

Employer's liability 81 

Equity jurisdiction 21 

Evening schools 52 

Exemption, soldiers' 32 

Experiment station 25 

Explosives u 67 

F. 

Factory inspectors 18, 76 

Fall , Charles G 81 

Fall River water case 28 

Fines, imperfect weaving 76 



PAGE 

Fires in workshops 73 

Fire regulations 68 

Forests 27, 106 

Foundlings 35 

Free text-books 53 

Frogs and switches 84 

Fund, school 50 

Furniture, by instalments 107 

G. 

Gag in prisons 39 

Game 28 

Gaming 46 

Gas companies 104, 105 

Gift enterprises 46 

Gifts to wives 57 

Gold payments 90 

Grade crossings 66, 97 

H. 

Habitual criminals 23 

Habitual drunkards 116 

Hand tools 53 

Hastings, Thomas J 24 

Homes for laboring people 87 

Hoosac Tunnel line 95 

Hotels, lire regulations 68 

I. 

Ice, impure 64 

Illiterate minors 55 

Illustrated papers 47 

Imperfect weaving . . 76 

Imprisonment, reduction 37 

Indecent language 46 

Industrial training 53 

Insane, the 34 

Insolvency 106 

Instruction, religious 43 

Insurance 100, 101 

J. 

Jail discipline 39 

Jeffries, Dr. B. Joy 65 



INDEX. 



125 



PAGE 

Jurisdiction of inferior courts. . . 21 

Jurisdiction in equity 21 

Juvenile offenders 35 

K. 
Knights of Labor 72 

L. 

Labor day 86 

Land ownership, board 107 

Lard 62 

Liability, employers' 81 

Liability, insurance 83 

Liability, railroads 83 

Liability, street railways 67 

Libraries 55 

License, retailers' 112 

License, sixth -class 110, 118 

License voided 118 

Liquor sales forbidden 115 

Liquor seizures 118 

Lists, voting 16 

Loan and Trust Companies 102 

Local option law 113 

Lotteries 46 

M. 

Manual Training 53 

Manufactories 72 

Manufactories, census of 26 

Manufactories, children in 55 

Manufactories, women and ) RA 

minors j e * 

Manufactories, voters 86 

Matrons, police 40 

Meal hours 75 

Meigs, Joe V 98 

Memorial day 33 

Metropolitan police 19 

Midnight liquor law 114 

Militia 32 

Milk, adulterated 61 

Minors and women 84 

Minors, illiterate 55 

Missiles thrown 67 

Moseley, Edward A 85 



PAGE 

Mufflers 70 

Municipal courts 21 

N. 

Naphtha 68 

Naturalization 15 

Neglected children 35, 36 

New cities 33 

New towns 33 

O. 

Obscene papers 47 

Obstruction to officers 48 

Officer, probation 37 

Oleomargarine 63 

Opium joints 47 

Order at elections 14 

Orphans 36 

Paine, Robert Treat 87 

Parks 34 

Parochial schools 51 

Partnerships - 107 

Pauper children 35 

Pauper veterans 9 

Petroleum 67 

Physical training 52 

Pigeon shooting 45 

Poisons 70 

Police courts 21 

Police, district 18 

Police in towns 20 

Police matrons 40 

Police, metropolitan 19 

Police, steamboat 20 

Pools 45 

Ponds, great 28 

Precinct voting 9, 16 

Prima facie law 118 

Private schools 51 

Probation officer 37 

Probation system 38 

Q. 

Quincy, Josiah 74 



126 



INDEX. 



K. 

PAGE 

Race distinctions 33 

Railroad accidents 66 

Railroad consolidation 97 

Railroad development 95 

Railroads, foreign 97 

Bailroads, new 96 

Randall, Charles L 20 

Reading-rooms 55 

Reduction of imprisonment 37 

Reformatory, Concord 38 

Reformatory , Sherbom 37 

Registration of voters 10-12 

Relief societies &3 

Religious instruction 43 

Religious societies 43 

Returns of votes 15 

Riots, saloons in 117 

Rousing bells 73 



S. 



Safety couplers 83 

Sanitary measures 74 

Savings banks 90 

School apparatus 53 

School districts 51 

School fund 50 

School information 52 

Schools, evening 52 

School-house law 114 

Schools, physical training 52 

Schools, private 51 

School suffrage 17 

School teachers' tenure 54 

Screen law 113 

Sentences, cumulative 40 

Sherborn reformatory 37 

Smoking 49 

Societies, relief 83 

Societies, religious 43 

Soldiers' exemption 32 

Speaking tubes 74 

Stage coach companies 67 

Steamboat companies 67 

" Stickers " 15 

Stock, special 85 



PAGE 

Stoves, car 66 

Street railways 98 

Street railways' liability 67 

Streets and parks 34 

Suffrage, woman 16 

Sunday law 43 

Superior court 22, 32 

Sureties 22, 115 



T. 



Taxation, double 24 

Tenements, fire regulations 68 

Tenure of teachers 54 

Text-books, free 53 

Text-books, temperance , 115 

Thayer, S. Proctor 30 

Theatrical exhibitions 70 

Towns, new 33 

Toy pistols 70 

Tramps 58 

Truancy 54 

Trustees, churches, etc 43 



V. 

Venue, change of 22 

Vinegar 65 

Voters in boarding houses 15 

Voters in certain establishments. 86 

Voters, naturalization 15 

Voters, registration 10-12 

Votes, re-counts 15, 10 

Votes, returns of 15 

Voting, illegal 13 

Voting lists 16 

Voting precincts 9, 16 



w. 

Wagers 45 

Wdlkii, Jusuphll. -M- 

Water, returns of 64 

Water supplies 64 



INDEX. 



127 



PAGE 

Weapons, dangerous 70 

Weaving, imperfect 76 

Weekly payments 76 

Whistles, locomotive 70 

Wives, gifts to 57 

Woman suffrage 16 

Women as lawyers 57 

Women and minors 84 

Women on probation 38 



PAGE 

Wooden flues 69 

Woodland 27 

Workshops, sanitary condition... 74 



Young persons at amusements. . . 48 
Young persons in court 46 



OCT 28 1910 




hHS 




